walls previous to issuing the decree in the twentieth year of the reign of Artaxerxes. Now, the twentieth year of his reign is to be dated, as we shall take occasion to show, from the Passover, B.C. 455; and counting onwards 483 years, or 69 heptads, we arrive at the Passover, A.D. 29, the year in which "Messiah was cut off" by his crucifixion outside the wall of Jerusalem. Moreover, it is to be noted, that this decree was issued "in the month of Nisan" (Neh. ii. 1), on the 14th of which was the Passover, and at the 483rd anniversary of which the death of Messiah occurred. The special mention of this month is an incidental testimony to the argument that none other but this decree fulfils the conditions required by the prophecy; for in the decrees of Cyrus and Darius no mention is made of the month, and in that of the seventh of Artaxerxes, as Ezra is represented setting out from Babylon, on his journey to Jerusalem, "upon the first day of the first month," which is the month called "Nisan" (Ezra vii. 9), the decree was in all probability issued some time previous. Seeing, then, that the decree of the twentieth of Artaxerxes, issued in the month Nisan, refers to the building of the wall and the city of Jerusalem, which none of the previous decrees had done, and is the only one which fulfils the chronological requirements of the prophecy, by having been given exactly 69 heptads, or 483 years before "Messiah was cut off," we reasonably conclude that it is the true date for the commencement of the prophecy recorded by Daniel. But as this view of the date of the twentieth of Artaxerxes, and also of the year of the crucifixion, runs counter to the generally-received opinion, it will be necessary to examine the question at length, and show strong grounds for the conclusion at which we have arrived after a lengthened investigation of the subject, and which we believe to be correct. Abulfaragius, called also Gregorius Bar-Hebræus, an oriental writer of much celebrity in the thirteenth century, of Jewish parentage, but who became Primate of the Jacobite Christians, A.D. 1266, in his "History of the Dynasties," says that the 70 weeks of Daniel are to be dated from the twentieth year of Ardsheer Dirazdest, i.e., the Artaxerxes Longimanus of the Greeks, and the same to whom Nehemiah was sakee, or cup-bearer. Other oriental writers are of the same opinion. NOTE. In addition to what has been said in the foregoing chapter concerning the general expectation of some mighty Prince, the following testimonies of more than usual interest (for which I am indebted to that admirable work on Chronology by Dr. Hales) will show that, even long anterior to the First Advent, there were some amongst the learned heathen who appear to have had glimpses of the truth, and who, as St. Paul declared to the Athenians, when commenting upon their worship of "THE UNKNOWN GOD," were constrained to "seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us." (Acts xvii. 27.) Thus Socrates, in the fifth century B.C., if we may judge from the magnificent hymn to the Creator, composed by his pupil, Eupolis, and which has been so well translated by Mr. Samuel Wesley (father of the founder of the Methodists), must have had some idea of the promised Messiah: "Author of Being, Source of Light, ESSENCE THAT CAN NEVER FAIL, Thy stedfast BEING still the same:.. And teach the world to praise and love........... (Unless great Socrates could err) Shall rise to bless some future day, And teach to live and teach to pray. Come, UNKNOWN INSTRUCTOR, COME! Our leaping hearts shall make Thee room; Of Jove and THEE we are the care. O FATHER, KING, whose heavenly face We thy munificence adore, And thy well-known aid implore; Nor vainly for thy help we call, Nor can we want, for THOU ART ALL!" The Grecian name, EI, "THOU ART," inscribed on the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, is supposed to be taken from the Saite inscription on the Temple of the Egyptian Goddess Neith, or Neveth, "I AM," corresponding with Exodus iii. 14, and meaning "UNCHANGEABLE." IAN was the Barbaric name for Jehovah, intimating His UNITY, whence the Phoenician IEYO, and from thence the Grecian name ZEYΣ. C And no less remarkable is the testimony of another of Socrates' pupils, the illustrious Plato, whose expectation concerning "the desire of all nations," as the prophet Haggai calls Christ, appears so marvellous, and which can can only be accounted for on the supposition, that during his travels in Egypt he became acquainted with the writings of the Jewish Prophets, and that he believed them more fully than that favoured people, for whom they were specially designed, and of whom it has been mournfully said, "He came unto His own and His own received Him not." (John i. 2.) Speaking of "the Just One," as he is termed, Plato says, "He shall be stripped of every possession, except his virtue; stigmatized as wicked, at a time when he exhibits the strongest proofs of goodness; endowed with patience to resist every temptation and reverse of fortune, but inflexibly maintaining his integrity; not ostentatious of his good qualities, but desiring rather to be good than to seem so. Indeed, the recompense which THE JUST ONE, so disposed, as I said, shall receive from the world is this: he shall be scourged, tortured, bound, deprived of his eyes, and at length, having suffered all sorts of evils, HE SHALL BE CRUCIFIED. (Vol. ii., p. 361, 2 Edit. Serrani.) To this we may add what Virgil records in his 4th Eclogue to Pollio, written B.C. 40, from the remains of the Sibylline Oracles, though applied by him, with his usual adulation, to the expected son of Augustus Cæsar, in whose reign, as is well known, the real Christ was born: "The last era of the Sibylline Oracle is now coming; A grand order of ages is to be born anew. A new progeny is now to be sent down from heaven, Shall perish-and a KING shall rule The peaceful world, inheriting HIS FATHER'S VIRTUES. Is now at hand BELOVED OFFSPRING OF HEAVEN, Bucolica. Ecl. iv. 4-50 CHAPTER II. THE TIME OF THE FIRST ADVENT. The common opinion for the date of the Crucifixion, A.D. 33, consideredThe fall of Sejanus decisive against its being so late as A.D. 33-The true date of Artaxerxes' accession to the throne of Persia according to Thucydides, Charon of Lampsacus, Eusebius, Usher, and an Egyptian inscription, a guide for fixing the commencement of the "seventy weeks" -Whiston's mode of reconciling the discrepancy between the Canon of Ptolemy and contemporary authorities concerning the date of Artaxerxes' accession-Ptolemy's canon proved erroneous with regard to that event by the Arundelian marbles-The Passover always observed on the fourteenth day of the month, another guide-The testimony of Phlegon respecting the supernatual darkness at the Crucifixion considered. THE generally-received opinion that "the seventy weeks" of Daniel's prophecy commenced in the seventh year of Artaxerxes' reign, B.C. 457, and terminated A.D. 33, after the whole 490 years had expired, appears to be grounded upon a misconception. For not only, as we shall presently see, should the seventh year of Artaxerxes be dated about nine years earlier than it usually is, but also the prophecy, as has been noticed in the previous chapter, expressly declares that the Messiah was to be cut off at the expiration of the 69 weeks, or 483 years, and not after the 70 weeks, or 490 years, had expired. The closer the prophecy is investigated, the more important does this distinction appear. It may be best, at the outset of the investigation, to state the grounds for the common opinion in the strongest light possible, in order that, by a careful analysis, it may be seen where they fail, before attempting to build up a structure which may rest upon a better foundation. Adopting the chronology of the Canon of Ptolemy, it is stated that Artaxerxes I. succeeded his father Xerxes in the year which answers to B.C. 464; that his seventh year, when the decree for regulating the worship in the newly-built temple at Jerusalem was given to Ezra, would answer to B.C. 457; and that, counting onwards 490 years, we are brought to A.D. 33, the commonly-received date of the crucifixion ;* which, it is argued, receives further confirmation by the fact that the Passover full moon fell that year on a Friday, April 3rd, o.s.; and that in that same year the heathen historian Phlegon mentions there was the most extraordinary eclipse of the sun ever seen, which, by a very natural conclusion, many have thought. should be referred to the supernatural darkness that took place at the time of our Lord's crucifixion. The astronomer Fergusson, in his chapter "Of the Times of the Birth and Death of Christ," sums up the arguments very clearly thus : : "The commandment was given to Ezra by Artaxerxes Longimanus in the seventh year of that king's reign. Ezra began the work, which was afterwards accomplished by Nehemiah; in which they met with great opposition and trouble from the Samaritans and others during the first seven weeks, or 49 years. From this accomplishment till the time when Christ's messenger, John the Baptist, began to preach the kingdom of the Messiah, 62 weeks, or 434 years; from thence to the beginning of Christ's public ministry, half a week, or 3 years; and from thence to the death of Christ, half a week, or 3 years; in which halfyear he preached, and confirmed the covenant of the gospel with many. In all, from the going forth of the commandment till the death of Christ, 70 weeks, or 490 years. Now, both by the undoubted canon of Ptolemy, and the famous era of Nabonassar, the beginning of the seventh year of the reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus, king of Persia (who is called Ahasuerus in the book of Esther), is pinned down to the 4256th year of the Julian period, in which year he gave Ezra the above-mentioned ample commission: from which count 490 years to the death of Christ, and it will carry the same to the 4746th year of the Julian period. Roger Bacon, in the thirteenth century, is supposed by Hales to be the first who assumed that the crucifixion took place A.D. 33 (though this is doubtful, for Eusebius places it in the nineteenth year of Tiberius), as he found by computation that the Paschal full moon of that year fell on a Friday. It will be seen, in the course of this work, that it is not the day of the full moon which is the test for settling the time of the Passover, but, according to the command of God (Exod. xii. 6), that it was to be observed on the fourteenth day of the month, i.e., on the fourteenth day of the moon, dating from its conjunction, which, A.D. 33, fell on Wednesday, April 1st. The death of Sejanus in October, A.D. 31, is another argument, which forbids, as the following note shows, our dating the crucifixion as late as A.D. 33. |