All

this view is free from the charge of absurdity it will not bear scrutiny. That was not a "commandment" to build Jerusalem, but merely a promise of future restoration. these theories, moreover, savour of perverseness and casuistry in presence of the fact that Scripture records so definitely the "commandment" in pursuance of which it was in fact rebuilt.1

Neither was it without significance that the prophetic period dated from the restoration under Nehemiah. The era of the Servitude had ended with the accession of Cyrus, and the seventy years of the Desolations had already expired in the second year of Darius. But the Jews were still without

1 Neh. ii. Nehemiah, on hearing from certain Jews who had returned from Jerusalem that the walls and gates of the city were still in ruins, was so overwhelmed with grief that the king took notice of his distress, and demanded the cause of it. And his appeal was, "That thou wouldst send me to Judah, unto the city of my fathers' sepulchre, that I may build it." Then follows the record of the royal edict to build Jerusalem, and of the building of it in pursuance of that edict.

a constitution or a polity. In a word, their condition was then much what it is to-day. It was the decree of the twentieth year of Artaxerxes which restored the national autonomy of Judah. The concession may have been an act of policy on his part, the Athenian victory at Cnidos having led to a peace which crippled the power of Persia in Palestine. But the fact, however it be

explained, is clear.

And a precedent which is startling in its definiteness may be found to justify the belief that such an era would not begin while the existence of Judah as a nation was in abeyance. I allude to the 480 years of 1 Kings vi. 1, computed from the Exodus to the Temple. If a little of the time and energy which the critics have expended in denouncing that passage as a forgery or a blunder had been devoted to searching for its hidden meaning, their labours might perchance have been rewarded. That the chronology of the period was correctly

known is plain from the thirteenth chapter of the Acts, which enables us to reckon the very same era as 573 years. How then can this seeming era of 93 years be accounted for? It is precisely the sum of the several eras of the servitudes.1 The inference therefore is clear that "the 480th year' means the 480th year of national life and national responsibilities. And if this principle applied to an era apparently historical, we may a fortiori be prepared to find that it governs an era which is mystic and prophetic.

1 Acts xiii. 18-21 gives 40 years in the wilderness, 450 years under the Judges, and 40 years for the reign of Saul. To which must be added the 40 years of David's reign, and the first three years of Solomon, for it was in his fourth year that he began to build the Temple. The servitudes were to Mesopotamia for 8 years, to Moab for 18 years, to Canaan for 20 years, to Media for 7 years, and to the Philistines for 40 years. See Judges iii. 8, 14; iv. 2, 3; vi. I; xiii. 1. The servitude of ch. x. 7, 9, affected only the tribes beyond Jordan, and did not suspend the national existence of Israel. But 8 +18+20 + 7 + 40 years are precisely equal to 93 years. To believe that this is a mere coincidence would involve an undue strain upon our faith.

70

So,

CHAPTER VI.

THE Book of Daniel is rejected because, it is alleged, its predictions end with Antiochus Epiphanes, and proofs are abundant that it was written in the Maccabean age. The question arises, therefore, whether any part of the prophecy relates to a later period, and if whether it has received fulfilment with a definiteness which ought to carry conviction to the minds of fair and reasonable men. The great central prophecy of the book supplies the answer. This famous prediction of the Seventy Weeks, therefore, demands a fuller notice than has been accorded to it in the preceding chapter.

Here Dr Farrar's taunt is all too well

perhaps the

But let

any

founded respecting the divergence which marks the rival schemes of expositors; and the effect which the study has had upon his mind has been to lead him to adopt Kuenen's exegesis, which is most preposterous of them all. plain man, ignoring everything which has been written upon the subject, turn to the passage with a determination to reject all strained or mystical interpretations, and to accept the words in their simple and obvious meaning, and at what results will he arrive? Here is the text of Dan. ix. 24-27:1

Seventy weeks are decreed upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish transgression and to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy Know therefore and discern that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the anointed one (or Messiah) the prince shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks it shall be built again with street and moat even in troublous times

1 See Appendix, Note I.