Week

WEEK. The Hebrews had three sorts of Weeks. 1. Weeks of Days, which were reckoned from one Sabbath to another. 2. Weeks of Years, which were reckoned from one Sabbatical Year to another, and which consisted of seven Years. 3. Lastly, Weeks of seven times seven Years, or of forty-nine Years, which are reckoned from one Jubilee to another. All this may be seen in the Constitutions of Moses, and in the Practice of the Jews consequent thereupon. See our Dissertation upon the Hebrew Chronology, printed before our Commentary upon Genesis.

The Weeks of Daniel. It is agreed, that the famous Weeks of Daniel are Weeks of Years and not of Days. But some have made them of seventy Years;¹ so that the Seventy Weeks would contain four thousand nine hundred Years. Some Rabbins² make them of forty-nine Years, or from one Jubilee to another; so that they would make three thousand four hundred and thirty Years. Others make them to consist of an hundred Years: So that the Seventy Weeks would contain seven thousand Years. But the generality of Interpreters suppose them to consist of seven Lunar or Hebrew Years; and by this Reckoning the Seventy Weeks would make four hundred and ninety Years.

The Angel Gabriel says to Daniel; Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation Dan. ix. Dan. ix. 24, 27. 1. R rfor iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy. Know therefore, and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, unto the Messiah, the Prince, shall be seven weeks; and threescore and two weeks the street shall be built again, and the wall even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall the Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: And the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week; and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

There are many different Hypotheses concerning the Beginning and End of Daniel’s Seventy Weeks, even among Christian Writers, who believe this Prophecy marks out the time of the Birth and Death of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Some begin them from the first Year of Darius the Mede,³ which is the Epocha of Daniel’s Prophecy, and make them to determine at the Prophanation of the Temple, which happened under the Persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes. Others begin them from the first Year of Cyrus at Babylon,⁴ and place the End of them at the Destruction of the Temple by the Romans. Others fix the Beginning at the first Year of Darius the Mede, in which this Revelation was made to Daniel, and put the End at the Birth of Jesus Christ. Julius Africanus⁵ began the Seventy Weeks at the second Year of Artaxerxes, who sent back Nehemiah into Judea, with a Commission mission for rebuilding the Walls of Jerusalem; and he made them to determine Nehem. i. 1. ii. 5.at the Death of the Messiah, which happened (according to him) in the fifteenth Year of Tiberius. This Hypothesis or System seems to be the most rational of any that have been proposed by the Ancients, and is adhered to by the generality of Commentators. The ancient Jews, as St. Jerome reports,⁶ began the Seventy Weeks of Daniel at Darius the Mede, and ended them at the Destruction of Jerusalem. The eight remaining Weeks determined at the utter Dispersion of the Jews under the Emperor Adrian. The modern Jews are not agreed among themselves, fearing to be convicted from this Prophecy that the Messiah is already come, and that their Expectation of him is in vain. Some pronounce a Curse against them that compute the time, saying, it is in vain to expect the Messiah, who has been come a long while ago. Others believe he is not yet come, but that he would have come a great while ago, if the Sins of the Jews had not prevented him. Others place the Beginning of the Seventy Weeks at the Destruction of the first Temple by Nebuchadnezzar, and the End at the Destruction of the second Temple by Titus. Between these two Events they reckon but four hundred and ninety Years, which is a Proof of their great Ignorance in Matters of Chronology. They believe the Desolation of Jerusalem is to continue till the War of Gog and Magog, who are to be destroyed by the Messiah. Thus is it understood by Jarchi and Abrabanel, with the chief of the Rabbins.

Our Design is not to propose here all the different Opinions of the Fathers, of Interpreters, and of Chronologers in this Point, or to refute such Hypotheses as appear to us either dangerous or defective. Those that desire to be fully informed of this Matter may consult those Authors that have treated particularly and designedly upon this Subject. We shall content ourselves to exhibit to the Reader that System, which to us appears the most consistent, and the most agreeable to Truth. This is that of Julius Africanus,⁷ which is now much in request, and which is espoused, some small Particulars excepted, by the greatest part of Interpreters and Chronologers, whether Romanists or Protestants. This places the first Year of the Seventy Weeks at the twentieth Year of King Artaxerxes Longimanus, who gave a Commission or Decree to Nehemiah, to rebuild the Walls of Jerusalem. From thence to the last Week, in which Jesus Christ, the Messiah of the Lord, was put to Death, are reckoned Seventy Weeks, or four hundred and ninety Lunar Years.

There are some Variations concerning the Calculation of these Years. Chronologers differ among themselves by some Years, but the greatest Difference does not exceed nine or ten Years. P. Petavius, who has treated of this Matter in his Twelfth Book De doctrina temporum, reconciles all these Differences by shewing, that the Words of the Prophecy of Daniel, ab exitu sermonis, ut iterum ædificetur Jerusalem, ought to be understood of the compleat Execution of the Order to rebuild Jerusalem, which was not performed but by Nehemiah. He shews also, that the twentieth Year of Artaxerxes, mentioned Nehem. i. 1. ought to be explained, not of the twentieth Year of the Reign of Artaxerxes alone, but of his twentieth Year, beginning from the time that his Father associated him with himself in the Kingdom, ten Years before his Death. These ten Years being deducted from the Number of Years that elapsed from the Decree of Artaxerxes in favour of Nehemiah, to the Death of Jesus Christ, deliver the Chronologers out of their Perplexities, and dispel the Difficulties that arose from the ten supernumerary Years, given by their Calculation of the four hundred and ninety Years, contained in the Seventy Weeks of Daniel.

This Prophet adds, that after the Death of Christ, “ The People that had renounced him should be no more, that the “ Temple should be destroyed by the “ strange Prince and People, that this “ War should be followed by the Abo“ mination of Desolation.” All this clearly proves the Dissolution of that Covenant between God and the incredulous and murdering Jews, the Destruction of Jerusalem and of the Temple, and the Dispersion of the Jewish Nation by the Romans. The Abomination of Desolation, expresses the Ruin, the Erasing, the Profanation of the Temple, and the Roman Eagles set up in the Holy Place. “ During this last Week the Covenant “ shall be confirmed to many.” Jesus Christ died in the middle of the seventieth Week, and by his Death was the Covenant sealed and confirmed to many, or to those that believed on him. “ In the “ midst of the Week the Oblations and “ Sacrifices should cease.” Not that they really ceased at the very Moment of our Saviour’s Death, but from thence were become useless.

“ Lastly,

” Lastly, The Abomination of Desolation shall be seen in the Temple, and ” this Desolation shall continue to the ” End.” The Destruction of the Temple, and the Abomination of Desolation, did not happen till forty Years after our Saviour’s Death; but it was determined, and in some manner begun, from the very Moment of his Death. The Destruction of the Jews was suspended for some Years, to give them time to return to God by Repentance. After this last Calamity their Nation could never recover itself again, nor ever shall for the future. ” This ” Desolation shall continue to the end.” Yet so as that there always will be Jews, dispersed all the World over, to give Testimony to the Truth of the Scriptures and Prophecies, and to serve as a Monument of God’s Vengeance, against an ingrateful and incredulous Nation. The Reader may see Pererius upon Daniel, M. Basnage’s Dissertation upon the Seventy Weeks, F. Hardouin’s Dissertation on the same Subject, against F. Lamy of the Oratory, our Dissertation upon the same, printed before Daniel, and that of J. Frischmuth in the Thesaurus Dissertationum, at the End of the Great Criticks, &c.

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