TERMINATION OF DANIEL’S SEVENTY WEEKS.
Our correspondent seems to object to our making the 70 weeks of Daniel terminate at the Crucifixion, on the ground that the prophecy teaches the cessation of the sacrifice, and the oblation, in the midst of the last or seventieth week; from which it is to be concluded that the crucifixion was at the end of 486 and a half years, and not at the end of 490, for they were virtually caused to cease by the cutting off of Messiah the Prince.
But we would inquire, if they end not at the crucifixion, in what notable event do they terminate? And if they ended three years and a half later, in what decree did they commence? The causing of the sacrifice and oblation to cease, must have been virtual or a matter of fact. If virtual, it must have been equivalent to “making reconciliation for iniquity, and the bringing in of everlasting righteousness,” which were effected by the death and resurrection of the Christ; but if a matter of fact, then sacrifices and oblations must have been actually suppressed, which did not occur till the time of desolation by the Romans. The virtual cessation came to pass in the seventieth week; but the actual, not till 40 years after the crucifixion.
Tracing the 490 years backward from the desolation, there is no decree for their commencement; for they were to begin “from the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem:” besides that, the year of the desolation no one knew, no, not even the Son, but the Father only, which would not have been the fact if the 490 ended at that hour. But tracing them back from the virtual cessation of the sacrifice and oblation in the cutting off of Messiah, the 490 years do find a beginning in a commandment to restore the Jerusalem Commonwealth, issued to Nehemiah by Artaxerxes, “king of Babylon, in the month Nisan of the 20th of his reign”—Nehemiah 2: 1, 5, 8; 5: 14.
But the difficulty with our correspondent seems to lie in the phrase “in the midst of the week,” arguing that if the crucifixion be the terminating point, that was at the end of the last week, instead of the midst thereof. But this objection is set aside by the fact that the original word does not mean the middle year of the last seven of years. The phrase rendered “in the midst of the week,” is va-chatzi ha-shavua, signifying a part of the week. “And he shall confirm a covenant for many one week; and a part of the week he shall cause to cease a sacrifice and oblation;” that is, from the many for whom the covenant is confirmed. The “covenant for many” is that of which Jesus said, “This cup” represents “the New Covenant in my blood—Luke 22: 20—which is shed for many”—Mark 14: 24. The covenant attested was that berith Jehovah had promised Israel, saying to his Servant,
“I will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a Covenant (or Purifier berith) of the people, and for a Light of the Gentiles”—Isaiah 42: 6; Malachi 3: 3.
This purifier of the people was witnessed to, or attested, of Jehovah for seven years; that is, from the beginning—Mark 1: 1—of John’s proclamation of glad tidings concerning him until the end of his own mission to the Jews. The ministry of John and Jesus divided the seven years into parts or chatzim. John’s chatz was the first part; that of Jesus, the last. The prophecy saith in the accusative of time, that in a part of the week sacrifice and oblation should cease to be offered by the many. This is the paraphrase of the text. The twenty-seventh verse of the ninth of Daniel doth not say in so many words which part, or in which of the seven years, the cessation should occur; yet it is clear, the Purifier or Covenant must continue the whole seven years, as He is the subject of Jehovah’s confirming power to the end thereof. After seven weeks, and “after” the three-score and two weeks, that is, after sixty-nine weeks from the going forth of the commandment “shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself.” How long after? When the confirmation of the covenant is finished, a process which continues seven years, and therefore in the last part of the week when the whole 490 years shall have come to an end.
In dismissing this subject for the present, we would remark, that it is not Messiah who confirms the Covenant for many, but Jehovah. There are some literary curiosities extant upon this subject illustrative of the total blindness off the learned; but we cannot undertake to notice them now. We may just say that Moses Stuart makes Antiochus Epiphanes, a pagan king, the maker and confirmer of the covenant, and Jewish apostates from the Law, the many with whom he agreed!!!
EDITOR.
