Chapter 4

_Nehem._ ii. 17. vii. 4, and finished the wall the 25th day of the month _Elul_, _Nehem._ vi. 15, in the 28th year of the King, that is, in _September_ in the year of the _Julian Period_ 4278. Count now from this year threescore and two weeks of years, that is 434 years, and the reckoning will end in _September_ in the year of the _Julian Period_ 4712 which is the year in which _Christ_ was born, according to _Clemens Alexandrinus_, _Irenæus_, _Eusebius_, _Epiphanius_, _Jerome_, _Orosius_, _Cassiodorus_, and other antients; and this was the general opinion, till _Dionysius Exiguus_ invented the vulgar account, in which _Christ_'s birth is placed two years later. If with some you reckon that _Christ_ was born three or four years before the vulgar account, yet his birth will fall in the latter part of the last week, which is enough. How after these weeks _Christ_ was cut off and the city and sanctuary destroyed by the _Romans_, is well known.

_Yet shall he confirm the covenant with many for one week._ He kept it, notwithstanding his death, till the rejection of the _Jews_, and calling of _Cornelius_ and the _Gentiles_ in the seventh year after his passion.

_And in half a week he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease_; that is, by the war of the _Romans_ upon the _Jews_: which war, after some commotions, began in the 13th year of _Nero_, A.D. 67, in the spring, when _Vespasian_ with an army invaded them; and ended in the second year of _Vespasian_, A.D. 70, in autumn, _Sept._ 7, when _Titus_ took the city, having burnt the Temple 27 days before: so that it lasted three years and an half.

_And upon a wing of abominations he shall cause desolation, even until the consummation, and that which is determined be poured upon the desolate._ The Prophets, in representing kingdoms by Beasts and Birds, put their wings stretcht out over any country for their armies sent out to invade and rule over that country. Hence a wing of abominations is an army of false Gods: for an abomination is often put in scripture for a false God; as where _Chemosh_ is called [10] the abomination of _Moab_, and _Molech_ the abomination of _Ammon_. The meaning therefore is, that the people of a Prince to come shall destroy the sanctuary, and abolish the daily worship of the true God, and overspread the land with an army of false gods; and by setting up their dominion and worship, cause desolation to the _Jews_, until the times of the _Gentiles_ be fulfilled. For _Christ_ tells us, that the abomination of desolation spoken of by _Daniel_ was to be set up in the times of the _Roman Empire_, _Matth._ xxiv. 15.

Thus have we in this short Prophecy, a prediction of all the main periods relating to the coming of the _Messiah_; the time of his birth, that of his death, that of the rejection of the _Jews_, the duration of the _Jewish_ war whereby he caused the city and sanctuary to be destroyed, and the time of his second coming: and so the interpretation here given is more full and complete and adequate to the design, than if we should restrain it to his first coming only, as Interpreters usually do. We avoid also the doing violence to the language of _Daniel_, by taking the _seven weeks_ and _sixty two weeks_ for one number. Had that been _Daniel_'s meaning, he would have said _sixty and nine weeks_, and not _seven weeks_ and _sixty two weeks_, a way of numbring used by no nation. In our way the years are _Jewish Luni-solar years_, [11] as they ought to be; and the _seventy weeks of years_ are _Jewish weeks_ ending with _sabbatical years_, which is very remarkable. For they end either with the year of the birth of _Christ_, two years before the vulgar account, or with the year of his death, or with the seventh year after it: all which are _sabbatical years_. Others either count by Lunar years, or by weeks not _Judaic_: and, which is worst, they ground their interpretations on erroneous Chronology, excepting the opinion of _Funccius_ about the _seventy weeks_, which is the same with ours. For they place _Ezra_ and _Nehemiah_ in the reign of _Artaxerxes Mnemon_, and the building of the Temple in the reign of _Darius Nothus_, and date the weeks of _Daniel_ from those two reigns.

The grounds of the Chronology here followed, I will now set down as briefly as I can.

The _Peloponnesian_ war began in spring _An._ 1 _Olymp._ 87, as _Diodorus_, _Eusebius_, and all other authors agree. It began two months before _Pythodorus_ ceased to be _Archon_, _Thucyd._ l. 2. that is, in _April_, two months before the end of the _Olympic_ year. Now the years of this war are most certainly determined by the 50 years distance of its first year from the transit of _Xerxes_ inclusively, _Thucyd._ l. 2. or 48 years exclusively, _Eratosth. apud Clem. Alex._ by the 69 years distance of its end, or 27th year, from the beginning of _Alexander_'s reign in _Greece_; by the acting of the _Olympic_ games in its 4th and 12th years, _Thucyd._