endless comment and speculation, few are to be found, who have not already made up their minds upon it, at least in a way opposed to my conclusions.

I may now advert to two or three points on which I anticipate the greatest difference of opinion. No doubt will, perhaps, be entertained on the question, that the book of Revelations must be greatly influenced in its scope, by the interpretation of those prophecies of the Old Testament to which it so frequently appeals; and of these, those contained in the book of Daniel form a very important part. In the application of some of these, I shall not be found to differ essentially from the commentators; in that of others, however, the differences will be found to be great and important : I will mention one, and one to which, perhaps, every other difference may be referred. In Daniel, ix. 24-27, we have a period termed seventy weeks, marked out and defined (according to my notions) by certain events, which it is predicted shall take place. These seventy weeks have usually been taken as designating a period of 490 years, to commence some time soon after the prediction was made, and to end in the times of our Lord. In this point of view, they have been considered as constituting a strictly chronological period, to have its commencement and end, according to this number of years as just mentioned. Great difficulties, however, have presented themselves in applying this period; and, for my own part, I do not know of one who appears to have done this, so as to satisfy the particulars laid down in, all respects. It is very true these 490 years can be made to end at some period either in our Lord's lifetime or at his death; but, the variety

of conclusions arrived at (arising either from the difficulty of ascertaining with precision when the period ought to commence, or how the years are to be numbered from it, when so fixed upon,) has been so great, as to leave nothing like the certainty desirable and even necessary in this

case.

If the question be raised, as to why the commentators have been led to the conclusion, that this period ought to be considered as one of 490 years, it will perhaps be answered, that a day is occasionally put for a year in prophetical language; and further, that the sum thus obtained may be made to agree, to some extent, with the events given for the purpose of defining its periods and completion. It is not my intention here to question the first of these cases, which I may very well do, nor to add any thing to what has already been said. respecting the last; because I have matter of much greater weight to urge, and matter, as it appears to me, very difficult to be dispensed with on that view of the question: it is this,—

In the first place, seventy weeks are determined as the period in which transgression is to be finished, an end made to sin, reconciliation for iniquity.... to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy, &c.

In the next, after sixty and two weeks (added to seven others already past, making in all sixtynine), Messiah is to be cut off: that is, at the end of sixty-nine weeks out of the seventy, the Messiah is to suffer. We are next told, that the people of the prince shall then come, and destroy the city and the sanctuary; and unto the end of

the war desolations are determined:* that is, after the Messiah had been cut off, and the city and sanctuary had also been destroyed. This must all happen after the termination of the sixty-ninth week, and before the seventieth has been completed. In the next verse we have the particulars, which are to define the period of the last, or seventieth, week of this period; i. e. "He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week; and in the midst of the week (i, e. of this last week) he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease:" that is, at a period here termed the midst of the (last) week; and, after the expiration of the sixty-ninth, according to the preceding verse, sacrifice was to cease, probably with the destruction of the temple and city, as there also stated. We have now, therefore, arrived at a period considerably beyond that of the lifetime of our Lord, and yet the seventy weeks are not completed. In the latter part of this verse (27) another period is intimated; for it is said, "He shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined,† shall be poured upon the deso

* It is remarkable that no stop is put in the common copies of our version, after the word determined. In the original, however, we have an important one, according to the Rabbinic authority by which our translators were generally guided. The passage would be more literally translated thus: And upon, or near, the wing (side, part, &c.) of abominations a desolation (or thing making desolate shall be), even to consummation, and (until the matter) determined pour (down) upon the desolater. The construction is rather obscure; but of the general sense there can be no doubt.

+ It will here be expected that I should mention my reasons for departing from other interpretations of this passage, particularly those which seem to have been most generally received. I shall,

late." With this consummation, therefore, the entire period of seventy weeks above mentioned shall, in all probability, end; and if so, we have a division or portion of the last prophetical week here spoken of, extending considerably beyond the destruction of Jerusalem, and still farther beyond the death of our Lord; at the termination of which, the consummation determined, or the sealing of vision and of prophecy, according to another method of stating the matter, is to happen. How long this period is to continue, circumstances alone must inform us, as it appears to me they must in every other case; because, as we have seen, the method of counting days for years, &c. will avail us nothing. How these periods have been disposed of by me will be seen in my Exposition and Concluding Remarks on the Revelations. If my views of the context are

therefore, briefly touch upon those of Mr. Mede and Mr. Faber. I will not enter specifically on Mr. Mede's interpretation: it must suffice to say that I object generally, first, to his translation of the passage in question, and secondly, to the system of refining to which he has had recourse; although I have no particular objection to the manner in which he has taken the several divisions of this

whole period. See his Tract on "Daniel's Weekes." My first objections to Mr. Faber's view of this period are against his translation of the passage; and beyond these I shall not now proceed. This translation is to be found in chap. iv. of his Dissertation on this prophecy. In verse 24, he has, "to seal THE vision and THE prophet." In the original, however, we have ♫ vision and prophet generally, without any definite article (the). To verse 25 I may make some further objections; but I pass on, because our general interpretation will stand unaffected in this place. In verse 26, I object to "the anointed one shall cut off by divorce," &c.; because no mention of divorce occurs in the original; because it is most unnatural to take as an active verb here; because

just, the whole period of seventy weeks marked out for the consummation, &c. cannot be measured by the sum of four hundred and ninety years; and, as I can see no good reason why recourse should ever have been had to that method of computation, I must conclude, that I believe that view of the subject to be untenable. I do not mean to infer, however, from this, that prophecy acknowledges no chronological periods. The duration of the Israelites both in Egypt and Babylon is marked by a strict chronological period; but, I argue, we are not at liberty to infer that, because those periods were chronological, this is strictly chronological likewise; unless, indeed, the circumstances of the context would justify us in doing so, which I have shewn is not the case here.

"so that they shall be no more his" can by no ingenuity be fairly

is והעיר והקדש and because ; ואין לו extracted from the words

most unnaturally and unwarrantably separated from the following context. In the next place, for the purpose of softening down the abruptness thus introduced, the word for is given, without any authority whatever in the original for doing so. I must also object to the translation of by" shall act corruptly," because the following context clearly requires a different rendering. I pass over some minor considerations, because I wish to be brief, and come to verse 27. Here we have, "and in half a week," for 127187), which is most objectionable; because we have the definite article () in the original, manifestly referring back to the preceding context, but here translated by the indefinite a, and introduced for the purpose of disjointing this from the preceding context. One great fault, I think, in the works both of Mr. Mede and Mr. Faber is, their separating God's judgments, as inflicted upon the Jews, from those constantly foretold in the same context to be inflicted upon the nations. See Matt. xxiv. 6-35, &c. It will not be necessary to say any thing more on this subject now.