Non Adventist sources affirm the SDA understanding of Daniel's 70 weeks and 2,300 days prophecy
The 2300 days of Daniel 8:14 are 2300 years
- English theologian George Downham (died 1634)
- The writer of the anonymous pamphlet De Semine in 1205 AD
- Villanova in the 1290's
- Nicholas of Cusa in 1440
- Sir Isaac Newton in 1727
- Judge John Bacon, a Congregational clergyman from
Massachusetts - Adam Clarke, Wesleyan Commentator from
Ireland - British barrister Edward King in 1798
- Congregational theologian Cotton Mather
- Governor William Burnet
- Episcopalian rector Richard Clarke
- Postmaster General Samuel Osgood
- Harvard librarian James Winthrop
Jewish expositors who held the same view include:
- Nahawendi in the 8th or 9th century
- Bar Hiyya about the 11th century
- Abravanel about the 15th century
- The notes found in the Berlenburg Bible, which was finished in 1739, state the same. It was a Bible popular among German Baptists as well as the first Bible printed in
America - John Tillinghast, English clergyman (1604–1655)
- Johann Petri, Reformed pastor in
Germany - William C. Davis, Presbyterian minister from
South Carolina - Dr. Joshua L. Wilson, Presbyterian minister and General Assembly moderator from
Ohio - Alexander Campbell, founder of the Disciples of Christ, in an 1829 debate in
Ohio - Samuel M. M'Corkle, a Disciples of Christ layman from
Tennessee
The 70 weeks begin with the seventh year of Artaxerxes
- Thomas Scott, Church of England commentator, in 1812
- Samuel Osgood, American soldier, legislator, and Postmaster General, in 1794
- George Stanley Faber, prebendary of Salisbury Cathedral, in 1811
- Sir Isaac Newton studying these historical evidence concluded that Ezra took the Artaxerxes' decree to
Jerusalem
The 70 weeks begin in 457 BC
- The Harper Study Bible, page 1313, says: "The terminus a quo for the commencement of these 69 weeks of years is stated to be from the going forth of the word (or decree) to restore and build
Jerusalem Jerusalem
- Gleason L. Archer, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1982). See p. 290, "If, then, the decree of 457 granted to Ezra himself is taken as the ... commencement of the ... 483 years, we come out to the precise year of the appearance of Jesus of Nazareth as Messiah (or Christ): 483 minus 457 comes out to A.D. 26. But since a year is gained in passing from 1 B.C. to A.D. 1 (there being no such year as zero), it actually comes out to A.D. 27…most remarkable exactitude in the fulfillment of such an ancient prophecy"(b).
- Christian Research Institute (CARM) cites Gleason L. Archer positively,"According to Archer, 290-91, the calculation would run something like this. Since the amount of years is 483 one would minus 457 for the rough date of the decree and then add 1 for the change from B.C. to A.D. since there is no zero. This would bring the end of the sixty nine weeks to 27 A.D. (483-457=26+1=27). It is generally acknowledged that Jesus died around 30 A.D. and he began his public ministry around 27 A.D. This leads to an amazing conclusion!" (c).
- Dr. David R. Reagan is a Christian Bible scholar who heads Lamb and Lion Ministries, “Now, using Ezra's decree as the staring point (457 B.C.), if we count forward 483 years we will arrive at 27 A.D. ..This is most likely the year that Jesus began His public ministry. This is hinted at in Luke 4 where it says that when Jesus launched His ministry at the synagogue in Nazareth….Further evidence that this date is correct is the fact that it would place the end of Jesus' 3½ year ministry in the spring of 31 A.D. And that happens to be the most likely year of the crucifixion" (d).
- Robert Reid, Reformed Presbyterian minister of Pennsylvania and president of Erie Academy, in 1828.
- Miss Harriet Livermore, "first woman ever to speak publicly within the walls of the U.S. Congress," in 1839
- In the German Reformation Johann Funck (1564) placed the seventy weeks (490 years) as reckoned from the seventh year of Artaxerxes, from 457 B.C. to A.D. 34.
- Protestant scholar Cappel in France
- Protestant scholar Bullinger in Switzerland
- Other protestant expositors such as Doderlein, Franc, Geier, Pusey, Auberlen, Blackstone,
Taylor
Scores in early nineteenth century fix on 1843, '44, or '47
- John A. Brown (scholar) in 1810
- Birks (scholar) in 1843
- William C. Davis (scholar) in 1810
- Dr. Joshua L. Wilson, moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly
- Protestant Episcopal Bishop John P. K. Henshaw
- Alexander Campbell, founder of the Disciples Church
- Archibald Mason - Reformed Presbyterian minister
- Timothey Dwight - President of Yale
- Eliphalet Nott - President of Union College in Schenectady
- George Junkin - President of Maimi Univ. in Oxgfford, OH
- Elias Burdick - Physician
- Robert Scott - Physician
- John Bacon - Judge
- Elias Boudinot - Congressman and Director of the Mint
- Some
40 European expositors looked to the 1840's.
The 490 years of
Daniel 9 are "cut off from the longer time span" of 2300 years
- Phillip Newell's commentary, "The Hebrew word used here . . . has the literal connotation of 'cutting off' in the sense of severing from a larger portion."(Source: cited in Desmond Ford, Daniel (Nashville: Southern Pub. Assn., 1978), p. 225.)
- Pulpit Commentary is in accord that "determined" means "cut off." (Source: The Pulpit Commentary, ed. H.D.M. Spence (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1950), Vol. XIII, p. 218.)
- The well-known Hebrew- English dictionary by Gesenius states that properly it means 'to cut' or 'to divide.' (Source: Gesenius, Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scripture, trans. Samuel P. Tregelles (Grand Rapids: W. B. Eerdmans, reprinted, 1950), p. 314.)
A judgement by works for the righteous
- Matthew Henry, "Christ will be the judge, and He has both authority and ability to determine men's eternal state according to their works, and before Him we shall stand as persons to be tried, and to give an account". —Commentary on Romans 14:10.
- John Calvin, "An account must one day be rendered before the judgment seat of Christ; for the man who seriously considers this must of necessity be touched with fear, and shake off all negligence. He declares, therefore, that he discharges his responsibility faithfully and with pure conscience (2 Tim. 1:3). He is one who walks in the fear of the Lord (Acts 9:31), thinking of the account to be rendered by him.—Commentary on 2 Corinthians 5:10.
Forgiveness and blotting out of sin
- The Pulpit Commentary, on Matt. 18: 35, “Christ's teaching on this point has even a severe side—even his forgiveness may be revoked; if he finds, by our behaviour after forgiveness, that we were morally unfitted to receive it.— Page 242.
- B. C. Coffin, “His cruelty cancelled the forgiveness which had been granted him. His last state was worse than the first. Those who, having been once enlightened, fall away from grace are in awful danger. "It had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them."—Page 223.
- Albert Plummer, Commentary on Matthew, Matt. 18:30, 35, “The unforgiving spirit is sure to provoke the anger of God; so much so, that His free forgiveness to sinners ceases to flow to them. . . . It revives the guilt of their otherwise forgiven sins.
The
nature of the judgment is “investigative” before the Second Coming
- The Preacher's Homiletic Commentary, the note on Dan. 7:9, 10 declares: “We have before us a passage of overwhelming grandeur and sublimity; the description of a scene of awful solemnity. The passage exhibits the judgment-seat of God, with myriads of attendant angels, and the infliction of pronounced doom on a large portion of the human race. . . . It appears rather to be an invisible judgment carried on within the veil and revealed by its effects and the execution of its sentence. . . . As, however, the sentence is not yet by any means fully executed, it may be sitting now"
- Dr. W. G. Heslop, evangelist, pastor, and author: "What a day of days the judgment day must be. Thus is represented the solemn assemblage of mankind awaiting their sentence from the supreme judge."
- The Lutheran theologian Joseph A. Seiss: "The truth is that the resurrection, and the changes which pass 'in the twinkling of an eye' upon the living, are themselves the fruits and embodiments of antecedent judgment. They are consequences of adjudications then already made." (J. A. Seiss, The Apocalypse, 13th ed. (Philadelphia: Philadelphia School of the Bible, n.d.), p.18.)
- Dr. Josiah Litch, Methodist Episcopal preacher:"If there are to be two distinct resurrections of the dead, when is the general judgment to take place? Will it be at the first or second resurrection? At neither; but before either of them takes place."
- D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, an eminent British Evangelical scholar referring to Hebrews 9:23, says: “We are taught here quite clearly that it was necessary that the heavenly place itself should be purified.” He continues: “And thus, it seems to me, we arrive at a kind of understanding of what is meant here by the necessity to purify even the heavenly tabernacle itself.” (D. M. Lloyd-Jones, God the Father, God the Son (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1996), 346-48) (a).
- Dean Henry Alford, Biblical scholar, "But this does not meet the requirements of the case. There would thus be no cleansing, as far as the relations of God and men are concerned: none, to which the propitiatory effect of blood would in any way apply. We must therefore rest in the plain and literal sense: that the heaven itself needed, and obtained, purification by the atoning blood of Christ.—The Greek Testament, 1864, p. 179
- New-Century Bible, "What is meant by the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary must be determined by its meaning as applied to the earthly. The ritual of the Day of Atonement was designed, not merely to atone for the sins of the people, but to make atonement for the sanctuary itself. The sense of this would seem to be that the constant sin of Israel had communicated a certain uncleanness to the sanctuary. Similarly the sin of mankind might be supposed have cast its shadow even into heaven".—New-Century Bible, "Hebrews," p. 191. (Italics supplied.)
- Dr. Brooke Foss Westcott (Biblical scholar and theologian), "The Blood of Christ by which the New Covenant was inaugurated was available also for the cleansing of the heavenly archetype of the earthly sanctuary. . . It may be said that even "heavenly things," so far as they embody the conditions of man's future life, contracted by the Fall something whichrequired cleansing.—The Epistle to the Hebrews (1903), pp. 271, 272.
Cited
Leroy Edwin Froom's four-volume Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers
(b)"According to a recent Zondervan book widely advertised and acclaimed among evangelicals, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties, sets 457 B.C. as Daniel 9's prophetic starting date" . See: http://www.vop.com/article.php?id=72
SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 4, pages 58-59.