seem impossible or unlikely that the Wall of the City should be repaired in so short a time and therefore those words according to Iunius to be meant of setting up the doors and bars only I could say first that the Wall was not new builded from the foundations but repaired upon the old ruines Secondly the speedy dispatch thereof was taken for a wonder even by the Jews Enemies who thereupon saith the Text perceived it was the hand of their God So that were there no worse scruple then this it were easily answered nor would examples * be wanting to parallel with it such as might make it seem at least possible As that strange and speedy building of the Walls of Athens by Themistocles after that Xerxes had demolished them reported by Diodor. Sic. lib. 11. Yea to come more near to the thing in question Iosephus lib. 6. c. 13. De Bell. Iud. tells us That Titus dividing the work amongst his Army begirt Ierusalem in three dayes space with a Wall of thirty nine Furlongs and thirteen Bulwarks to hinder the Jews excursions from within and all relief from without What the materials were I know not but he sayes it was a thing beyond all belief and might have seemed to be a work of some Moneths But leaving this digression let us see the computation and impletion of our Lxij Weeks The Computation and impletion of the Lxij Weeks FRom the seventh yeare of Artaxerxes Mnemon when Ezra had Commission to cause to Return and carry with him as many of the Jews as would to Jerusalem Ezra c. 7. ver. 7. 13. And from the twentieth year of the same Artaxerxes when Nehemiah obtained leave to build Jerusalem the City of his Fathers Sepulchres Nehem. 2. From both these Commissions though thirteen years distant the one from the other are by divine disposition unto MESSIAH the PRINCE threescore and two Weeks from the first of Solar from the latter of Lunar years For Lxij weeks or 434. Lunar years are lesse then so many Solar as much as is between the seventh and twentieth of Artaxerxes which admirable concordance I cannot impute to chance but ascribe to divine providence so ordering it of purpose that these two Epocha's and Commissions To cause to Return and To build Ierusalem might be as one and the same And as the Lunar year is contained within the Solar and by it ordered and directed so is the Period here from Nehemiahs Commission to Build the City contained and reduced to that from Ezraes Commission to cause the people to return In the last of these Weeks according to prediction was Christ our Lord anointed In the beginning whereof exactly between the first and second Passeover after his Baptisme when his Harbinger Iohn had now finished his Message and was cast in Prison a time precisely and purposely noted in the Evangelicall Story he first began to preach in Galilee the Gospel of the Kingdome ordained his Apostles and proclaimed himselfe to be the MESSIAH After Iohn was put in Prison saith Mark 1. 14. Iesus come into Galilee preaching the Gospel of the Kingdome of God and saying {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The time is fulfilled i. the last week of the sixty two weeks is come and the Kingdome of God is at hand From that time saith Matthew c. 4. 17. Jesus began to preach and to say Repent for the Kingdome of heaven is at hand This was that day whereof Christ himself said at Nazareth that that Scripture was fulfilled The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poore c. and to preach the acceptable yeare of the Lord Luke 4. This the time and place whence S. Peter reckoned the beginning of Christs Prophecy in his Sermon to Cornelius That word saith he which was published throughout all Iudea and began from Galilee after the Baptisme which Iohn preached c. Acts 10. 37. In the third year of this Week two years and an half after he began his Prophecy and three years and an half after his Baptisme being made our Priest he offered himself upon the Crosse a Sacrifice for sinne was dead buried and rose again Then ascended up into heaven to be installed and to sit at the right hand of God from thenceforth to raigne untill he hath put all his Enemies under his feet But you will say This was all performed four years before the 434. years which is sixty two Weeks of years were expired I answer as before The Angell reckons not by single yeares but by Weeks the last whereof should be Messiahs Week as we have shewed it to have been If the Angel had said There shall be 434. years unto MESSIAH then to make good the prediction MESSIAH must have been anointed the last yeare But when he sayes There shall be Sixty two Weeks unto MESSIAH it is sufficient he was anointed the last Week But how this Week will at length be compleat we shall see in the next verse But first let us demonstrate our Computation Ezra's Commission Darius Nothus died saith Diodor. lib. 13. in the same yeare but a little while after the Composition of the Peloponesian war which was in May Olymp. 93. 4. that is An. Olymp. 372 finiente Ergo The first of Artaxerxes begins about August and concurres with Anno Olymp. 373. The seventh of Artaxerxes with Anno Olymp. 379. N. B. If Artaxerxes had began before August the number or date of his raign must have altred either in or between the first and fifth Moneth but they are both of one year Ezra 7. as also the first and the ninth Nehem. c. 1. c. 2. Christs Prophecy Christ our Lord was Baptized Anno Olympiadico 805. ineunte about the Feast of Expiations in the seventh Month Tisri six Months after Iohn began to baptize and in that year naturall and politicall which began in the 15. of Tiberius towards ending but was the 16. when he was baptized For Iohn I suppose began to preach and baptize in the first Month Nisan when the Summer was before him and not when the Winter was to enter in the 15. year of Tiberius which ended August following Now Iohns imprisonment was a year after the Baptisme of Christ namely between the first and second Passeover after it as is clear and evident by the Euangelicall Story Iohn c. 2. 23. c. 3. 22. Chap. 4. The Beginning therefore of Christs Prophecy which began at the imprisonment of Iohn Mark 1. 14. was Anno Olympiad 806. about the end I suppose of the same Month Tisri or Septemb. The beginning of Christs Prophecy An. Olymp. 806 Mens. 7. The Time of Ezra's Commission An. Olymp. 379. Mens. 7. Differentia An. 427. M. o. 61. weeks cōpleat From hence Mens. 7. begins the last week wherefore the Passion of Christ at the Passoever Mens. 1. firmly fixed by Chronologicall Characters in the 19. of Tiberius Anno Olymp. 808. Aerae Christian
DANIELS WEEKES AN INTERPRETATION of part of the Prophecy of DANIEL BY JOSEPH MEDE late Fellow of Christs Colledge in CAMBRIDGE LONDON Printed by M. F. for JOHN CLARK and are to be sold at his Shop under S. Peters Church in Cornhill 1643. DANIELS VVEEKES THE Weeks of Daniel are a Divine Chronology of the Time which the Sanctuary with the Legall Service should continue when it should be restored after the Captivity of Babylon During which time also the City of Jerusalem it self should be re-inhabited and the walls thereof rebuilded and some Lxij weeks after that began to be should Messiah the Redeemer be anoynted yea and cut off and rejected of his own For which when the whole Lxx. weeks the time allotted should expire their Sanctuary and City should again be razed and their Common-wealth utterly dissolved Vers. 24. Cap. 9. Seventy weeks are allotted for thy people and for thy Holy City to finish transgression and make an end of sinnes and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousnesse and to fulfill vision and prophecy and to anoint the MOST HOLY SEventy Weeks are determined or allotted That is The Holy City shall again be restored and Lxx. weeks of yeares are allotted and limited for the continuance thereof and thy people with it and that for this end that during the standing thereof the Messiah according to vision and prophecy may come to expiate sinne and be anointed in his Kingdome The word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} here translated determined or allotted signifies properly to be cut or cut out and so may seeme to imply such a sense as if the Angel had said to Daniel Howsoever your bondage and Captivity under the Gentiles shall not altogether cease untill that succession of Kingdomes which I before shewed thee be quite finished yet shall God for the accomplishing his promise concerning the Messiah as it were cut out of that long terme and certain limited Time during which the Captivity of Judah and Jerusalem being interrupted the Holy City and Common-wealth in some measure shall again be restored and so continue till Lxx. Weeks of yeares be finished Here I distinguish the beginning of the Times of the Holy City from the beginning of Jerusalem For the Holy City is so called of the Temple as the principall part and therefore the Time of the restitution thereof to be reckoned from the Time the Temple was builded But by Jerusalem is understood as appeares in the next verse the externall buildings and wals of the City which were not restored till some time after the Temple and Sanctuary was finished As for the impletion all are now agreed That the Beginning of these Weeks is to be reckoned from some Restoring either of the Temple and that in the second third or sixt yeare of the Raigne of some Darius or of the City in the seventh or twentieth yeare of some Artaxerxes Kings of Persia But it cannot be from Darius the first sirnamed Hystaspis for then they would come out long before the Birth of Christ Nor from the first Artaxerxes sirnamed Longimanus for he was an hinderer of the work of the Temple and forbad the building thereof Ezra cap. vers. 11. ad finem Nor from the second Artaxerxes sirnamed Mnemon for so they would far over-reach the Destruction of Jerusalem Therefore it remaines that they be counted from Darius the second sirnamed Nothus in the second yeare of whose raign the work of the Temple after a long interruption began to revive Ezr. 4. v. 24. Hag. c. 1. 2. Zachar. c. 1. c. and in the sixt yeare of his raign was finished Ezra 6. ver. 15. Secondly these Lxx. Weeks are the time allotted for the continuance of the Holy City and therefore must they last as long as it lasted and end with the end thereof but this cannot be unlesse we fixe their Epocha in the beginning of Darius Nothus Ergo Which in the event is most true For from the third yeare of Darius Nothus when the work of the Temple by the incitement of Haggai and Zachary renewed the year before was now confirmed by a new Edict from the King to be finished unto the Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus are exactly 490 yeares that is Lxx. Weeks of years fully compleat Artaxerxes Longimanus died saith Diodorus li 11. Olymp. 88. 4. that is An. Olympiadico 352 Mens. Novembri or thereabout for Winter was entred Thucyd. lib. 4. Ergo Xerxes who raigned next after him one year ex eod. dying An. Olympiadico 353 Mens. Nov. Sogdianus also who succeeded Xerxes reigning but seven Months Anno Olymp. eodem  M. Maio Darius Nothus his Ann◠1. begins Annus 2. Anno Olympiad 354. M. Maio Annus 3. Anno Olympiad 355 M. Maio In this third yeare of the King and at the end of this Olympiadicall yeare in the beginning of August as may be supposed came forth the Edict of Darius some ten moneths after Zorobabel and Ieshua had begun to renew the work the yeare before Hag. 1. 14 15. And so much time halfe thereof being Winter may well be allowed for their enemies to hear of the work to goe see and do their best to hinder it when they could not to write and send unto the King the searching of the Rolles and obtaining a new Edict The Destruction of Ierusalem by Titus I take as granted Anno Olymp. 845. finiente 846. ineunte The Edict of Darius as is shewed Anno Olymp. 345. finiente 356. ineunte Distantia 490 490 The Account by yeares of Nabonassar ex Canone Ptolomaei Astronomico The last yeare or year of Neroes death Iune 9. in Ptolomies Canon answers to An. 815. Nabonass Ergo the yeare of Ierusalems Desolation 2. years after is concurrent with An. 817. Nabonass finiendus in Augusto The first of Darius Nothus in Canone Ptolomaei answers An. 325. Nabonass Ergo the third year of Darius is concurrent with An. 327. Nabonass Ordiendus à Decembri praecedent Differentia 490  Notwithstanding all this I had rather begin the Accompt from the sixt year of Darius in the Moneth Adar when the Temple was quite finished for then it first began to continue and not till then although the Destruction of Jerusalem will then fall out three years and an half sooner namely when the last week is but half run out And what if it do The Angel as I conceive tels us so much in the last verse when he sayes That in the midst of a Week the Sacrifice and Oblation should cease and the City be made desolate But how will the Prophecy be made good if the Seventieth Week be not compleat I answer It should be observed though it useth not to be that the Angel reckons not by single yeares but by Weeks If he had said there should be 490. years to the Excidium of Jerusalem then indeed to make good the prediction the City and Sanctuary must have been destroyed
33. that is agreeable to the received Tradition but three year and an half after his Baptisme will fall to be in the third year of the week which is wholly to be compleat Ann. Aerae Christ 37. when the 813. Anno Olymp. shall be begun and current in Septemb. Verse 26. And after the threescore and two Weeks shall MESSIAH be cut off and they none of his Wherefore the Princes people to come shall destroy the City and the Sanctuary and the end thereof shall be with a flood and unto the end of Warre desolations are determined ANd after the threescore and two Weeks shall c. That is when the Threescore and two Weeks aforesaid shall expire and be fully compleat for so the word after supposes they must be MESSIAH shall be cut off not onely from the living by the death he should suffer upon the Crosse for that was a little before but from being any longer the King and Priest of that People they refusing him to be theirs and he casting off them from being His which is the meaning of the words following {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} And they none of his For {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is to be understood that so the conjunction Vau may couple similia tempora {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Et non erit ei populus ejus or {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} And they shall be none of His And for the Verb {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that it signifies not onely a cutting off from life but also from reigning as a King or from being a Priest See for the first 1 Kings c. 2. ver. 4. chap. 9. ver. 5. 2 Chron ch. 7. ver. 16. Ier. 33. 17. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c. There shall not be cut off to David a man to sit upon the throne of the House of Israel All which have reference to 2 Sam. c. 7. ver. 16. For the second cutting off from the Priesthood 1 Sam. 2. 33. to Eli And the man of thine whom I shall not cut off from mine Altar Ier. 33. 18. Neither of the Priests the Levites {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} shall a man be cut off before me to offer burnt offerings c. and to doe Sacrifice continually The Computation and Impletion From the seventh year of Artaxerxes Mnemon at the time of the Commission granted to Ezra Anno Olympiadico 379. as is already shewed unto the fourth year after Christs Ascension Anno Olymp. 813. Aerae Christianae Dionysiacae 37. are Lxij weeks of years or 434. years fully compleat and expired The next year after was Christ divorced and cut off from the Jews and they {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} cast off from being His people which may appear thus Christ suffered upon the Crosse rose from the dead and ascended into heaven The Holy Ghost descended at Pentecost 3000. converted more added the Apostles forbidden but cease not to preach Jesus Christ So this year ends about September The number of Disciples much increased Deacons chosen and Steven one of them Act. 6. 1 2 3 c. Steven doth great wonders and miracles The Word of God and the number of Disciples increaseth so that a great company of the Priests were obedient unto the Faith The Elders and people rage and about the end of the yeare was Steven martyred Acts c. 6. ver. 7 8 9 10 11. cap. 7. ver. 1. ad finem Great persecution against the Church at Jerusalem Saul makes havock Acts c. 8. whereupon the Disciples were scattered through the Regions of Judea and Samaria every where preaching the Gospel ver. 4 5. Of whose successe the Apostles being informed send Peter and Iohn to Samaria to lay hands on the new converts ver. 14. which done and by the way preaching the Gospel in the villages of Samaria they returned againe to Jerusalem ibid. Those which were scattered upon the persecution of Steven proceed further and travelled as farre as Phoenice Cyprus and Antioch having by the way preached the Gospel to the Jews at Damascus how came they there else Cap. 11. Which Saul hearing of gets letters thither to bring those he should find there of that way unto Jerusalem But in his journey himself was miraculously converted and baptized c. Peter in the mean time was gone again from Ierusalem by Lydda unto Ioppa where he remained all this yeare at the house of Simon the Tanner The next year after Anno Aerae Christianae 38. Anno Olympiadico 813. according as was foretold That after threescore and two Weeks were ended MESSIAH should be cut off and they none of his when Christ had now one whole Week of years tendred himself unto his own people and they not onely refused him but first by crucifying the Lord himself and after that by persecuting his Messengers sent unto them had made themselves unworthy of everlasting life Peter was taught by vision that the Gospel of the Kingdome should be preached unto the Gentiles and accordingly sent to preach it to Cornelius a Centurion of the Italian band Acts 10. And here begins the Epocha of the Rejection of Israel and the Calling of the Gentiles which S. Paul speaks so much of Rom. 11. True it is the cutting off of Christ by death was before the last week was compleat but the cutting him off from being King and Priest of the Jews was not untill after it was ended Or if this cutting off here mentioned may not be extended to any other cutting off then by Death yet the other part of the copulative sense {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} And they shall be none of His was not fulfilled untill the whole Week was ended Wherefore the PRINCES to come c. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Populus MESSIAE venturus i. futurus The People that should be the people of Messiah the Prince when Israel was rejected so the Hebrews call seculum futurum {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} whence Mark 10. ver. 13. Luke 18. 30. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Eph. 2. 7. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} According to which notion Apoc. 1. 4. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Vid. Psal. 71. 18. Esay 27. 6. Esay 44. 7. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Vulgat ventura quae futura sunt Thus I construe the Text and understand by Populus principis futurus the people of the Romane Empire where Christ was principally to have his Church and Kingdome whilst Israel should be rejected Cornelius therefore the first Gentile converted was a Romane Centurion S. Paul who is called the Apostle of the Gentiles went not beyond the bounds of the Empire This was that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} whereof Christ said Matth. 24. That before the Destruction of Jerusalem the Gospel should be preached {non-Roman}