It may be as well to state here in relation to the number in Dan. 8:14, that there are various readings of the text. In some manuscripts seen by Jerome in the 4th century, the number was written 2200. The English Version on his authority reads 2300. But in the Septuagint, translated from the Hebrew, about 265 years before the birth of Jesus, for the use of the Jews in Egypt, who spoke Greek, the number is written 2400. Here, then, are the three different periods assigned to the duration of the “evening-morning” trampling of the Holy and the Host by the Little Horn of the Goat — 2200, 2300, and 2400. Which of these is correct?
As to the 2400, it does not depend alone upon what some regard as the questionable authority of the Septuagint. The celebrated missionary, Joseph Wolff, states that the Jews of Ispahan and Bokhara possess some ancient manuscripts of the prophetic writings of Daniel, in which chapter 8:14, reads “2400 instead of 2300 days;” also, that, when in Adrianople, in 1826, he saw an Armenian manuscript of the Bible in Greek, supposed to be of the fifth century, and translated by Mesrop, in which the same number occurs.” The greater number of manuscripts read 2300. This, however, proves nothing more than the fact, that 2400, like the truth, is in the minority. “The authorities” and “competent judges,” as they are regarded by Laodiceans without authority and incompetent, are most of them in favor of the 2300. They reject the test
imony of the Septuagint as a typographical error; but this objection will not hold against the manuscripts seen by Wolff, which “the authorities” and “competent judges” have not hitherto succeeded, if they have attempted even, in convicting of error.
What is the correct reading of the number must be determined by something more reliable than Laodicean “authority.” Only one of the three readings can be right; and it is not to be supposed, considering the carefulness with which the Hebrew text was preserved, that they are all wrong. The probability is, that some manuscripts were corrupted in, or soon after, the reign of “Antiochus Epiphanes, the Jewish Antichrist,” so-called, in order to make out a theory of the fulfilment of “the Vision of the Evening-Morning,” in his persecution of the Jews! The 2400[1] period was too long for the theory, and was probably shortened to suit; hence, the 2300; and, as the theory was “orthodox,” and adopted by the leaders of the catholic idolatry as the true interpretation, of the prophecy, and by them handed down to the present generation of the children of the Great Harlot, as proved by the writings of Rollin, Maitland, Moses Stuart, and so forth, the number, as an essential element of the theory, was patronized by “the authorities” and “competent judges” of the divinely excommunicated court, who, in the multiplication of manuscripts, are careful to insert 2300 instead of 2400.
Be this, however, as it may, the question with us is not so much how came the error, but what is the truth in the case? This is what I shall try to get at; and, in so doing, I remark, that it appears to me that the solution of the difficulty depends upon the working of the matter by a correct rule of interpretation. My rule or reed, then, is this, that the time of the Vision must be calculated from the first event symbolized in the vision. I see no flaw in this rule. I can see no reason why any of the events symbolically represented should be left out of the time given, whatever it may be. The time of the vision is the 2200, 2300, or 2400, as may be determined. Many affirm (and I was once of the same opinion, when I took for granted the correctness of the English text) that the commencement of the Seventy Weeks was the beginning also of the time of the vision, B .C. 456. But to begin at this date would be to exclude the symbolical events of over eighty years. Why should they be excluded from the time of the vision? I can see no reason for such exclusion; and, therefore, cannot consent to it. Besides this, it terminates too soon. This will appear from the Hebrew text, Veth-kaitz h’khazon, “to the time of the end the vision.” The vision is to extend to the epoch of the manifestation of “the appearance of a man,” answering to the symbolism exhibited in Dan. 8:15-18; 10:5,6; when “the Holy shall be vindicated,” or avenged — ch. 8:14. If 2300 be assumed as correct, then, commencing as above, it terminated in the vulgar era 1843. This was twenty-two years ago; too long an interval for a correct ending. The Man has not appeared, nor has the Holy been justified, cleansed, vindicated, or avenged, in any sense. I therefore conclude that this beginning and ending in connexion with the 2300 is a mistake.
My rule excludes the idea of the time of the vision beginning with “the going forth of the commandment for causing to return, and for building Jerusalem,” in the 20th of Artaxerxes, B.C. 456. This commencement was assumed on the ground of the word, nekhtak, rendered in the English Version, “are determined,” signifying, cut off. It is true that this is one of its meanings; but it also signifies cut upon, or notched, divided, decided, decreed, determined. Sir Isaac Newton has the following note upon the word: “Cm? upon — A phrase in Hebrew, taken from the practice of numbering by cutting notches.” the word in the prophecy for “cut off,” is yikkaraith — ver. 26. The Seventy Weeks were divided off from the time of the vision; but not necessarily from its first years. If a reed of any length represents the time of the vision, the most that can be argued from the cutting import of the word is, that the seventy weeks, or 490 years, were notched into the reed — that they were placed between two notches; of which, the first answered to the decree of Artaxerxes; and the second, to the “cutting off of Messiah” by crucifixion.
But decreed, or determined, in the sense of divided or apportioned, is doubtless the sense of the word in this the only place it occurs in the book. Seventy weeks are apportioned out of the time of the vision for the development of certain specified events. Hence, their beginning or ending affects only themselves; and the commencement of the time of the vision must be sought for elsewhere.
Seeing, then, that it is reasonable that all the events of the vision should be included in the time of the vision, I am prompted to inquire, what was the first event symbolized in the Evening-Morning vision? The answer to this is in the words of Daniel: “The higher horn of the ram came up last.” This was the first event symbolized. It represented the Persian Dynasty of the Ram Empire succeeding the Median. Darius and Cyrus reigned conjointly in Babylonia two years, when Darius the Mede died, and Cyrus the Persian became sole ruler, B.C. 540. This was the third year of Cyrus from the death of Belshazzar; the first from the death of Darius (Dan. 1:21; 10:1). Now, if this be admitted as the commencement of the time of the vision, it is fatal to the claims of the 2300; for this number, calculated from B.C. 540, would end A.D. 1760, since which year over a hundred years have elapsed, in no part of which has the trampling of the Holy and the Host been finished, nor the Holy avenged.
For this reason, then, I reject the 2300 as spurious; and if so, I can have nothing to say for the 2200, which, by the same rule, terminated two hundred years ago. What then remains? One thing only, and that is, if my rule of interpretation be correct, that the 2400 is the best reading of the three, and alone worthy of all reception. Adopting this as the true time, we are brought by it to A.D. 1860-’ 1, which is the ending of the 2400th years. If I am right, A.D. 1865 is hard on the beginning of “the time of the end,” styled by John “the Hour of Judgment.” The numbers of Daniel and John all seem to terminate in the epoch now upon us. After the 2400 is finished, “the appearance of the Man clothed in linen,” “the voice of whose words is the voice of a multitude,” transpires, judgment is given to them, and the Holy is avenged; but how long exactly intervenes between the end of the 2400 and his appearing “as a thief,” I see no evidence to prove.
The vision, of which the 2400 is the time, is styled “the vision of the evening and the morning,” in allusion to “the day,” which was offered in sacrifice every evening and morning under the law. No movement was to take place for its restoration until the end of a day of 2400 years. That end seems to have arrived, and with it the end of Daniel’s “time, times, and a dividing of time,” the 1335 days, and John’s “forty and two months.” I therefore now look for the advent of Christ, and the resurrection, at any time within the epoch ending in a very little season.
[1] Time has proved Bro. Thomas to be wrong in his conclusions regarding the 2300 time period. He accepted the 2,400 reading on the ground that it alone showed results, and because of his intense love for the Lord’s appearing, he anticipated his coming too soon. But, as is today obvious, evidence shows that he was incorrect in doing so. The assertion that the Vatican MS reads 2400 is not correct. It was based upon a certain printed copy into which the erroneous figure had crept. Not a single MS. extant reads 2400. The Alexandrian MS., the Peshito Version of the Third Century, the Latin Vulgates of the Fourth Century, the Authorised Version and the Revised Version, all read 2300. The only witness for the 2400 is the claim of the missionary, Wolff (cited by Bro. Thomas above), who had seen an old MS. at Bokhara or Ispahan which read 2400. But even he admitted that the greater number of MSS. found in the East, like all others found in Europe, had the number 2300.
The dominant prophecy of Daniel 8 where the time-period is found is the contest between the Ram (Persia) and the He-goat (Greece) which resulted in the triumph of the latter over the former. Alexander’s triumph resulted in the extension of European power over the Land of the Covenant. This commenced with the conquest of Greece by Philip of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great. His campaign began in B.C. 353/52, to which if 2300 years are added terminates in 1947, the year in which the UNO decided in favour of a Jewish State in Palestine, which was established in May 1948. But Alexander’s decisive victories against the Persian Ram at Granicus and Issus in B.C. 333 effectively opened up the East to him. That commencement brings the terminal date to 1967 and the occupation of Jerusalem by the Israeli forces. The repercussions of the Six Day War have been felt throughout the world, as the Arabs commenced to use economic weapons against the Israelis and their sympathisers. As Bro. Thomas elsewhere shows, the word “sanctuary” in Dan. 8-13 is qodesh in the original and signifies holy, leaving it to be determined as to whether holy people, place, land or city is signified. The Lord cited this prophecy of Daniel in Luke 21, and in doing so showed that the “holy city” was what was referred to: “Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled” (v. 24). If this be accepted, we are now in the epoch of time which will see the fulfilment of the “times of the Gentiles”. In commenting uPOn the statement of Daniel, “then shall the sanctuary;y be cleansed” (Dan. 8:14), Bro. Thomas in Exposition of Daniel states: “Let it be observed that this does not teach that the avenging of the holy is to commence immediately. It only gives us to understand that when that period is passed, the next series of events in relation to the holy land shall be the manifestation of things necessary to wrest it from the Gentiles, and to avenge it in their overthrow. “ This means that the termination of the 2300 period would introduce an epoch of time, and of events, that will terminate in the return of Christ, the outpouring of Armageddon, and the final cleansing of the Land. World events are moving towards that climax, and have been doing so at an accelerated pace, since the occupation of Jerusalem by Israel in 1967.—Publishers.