Blayney-6. It may finally be objected to Dr. Prideaux, that he understands the rebuilding of Jerusalem figuratively, instead of literally; and that he makes the Julian year 4739 to synchronize with the fifteenth year of Tiberius when John is said by St. Luke to have commenced his ministry, whereas according to Ptolemy it synchronizes with the twelfth year of that prince: but, as I think him right in both these particulars, I shall reserve my defence of them to a future part of this work.

3. Cornelius à Lapide, after discussing other systems, gives the preference to that which computes the seventy weeks from the seventh year of Artaxerxes. He asserts however, that not the seventy weeks themselves, but that sixty nine weeks and a half, expire with the crucifixion; by which great event he thus supposes the Levitical sacrifices to have been spiritually abolished in the middle of the seventieth week. This arrangement of the crucifixion fixes the baptism of Christ to about the termination of the sixty nine weeks. Hence he argues, that unto the Messiah, by which he understands unto the commencement of the personal ministry of the Messiah, there were sixty nine weeks agreeably to the declaration of the prophecy *.

* Cornel. a Lapid. Comment. in Dan, in loc. p. 1353, 1354.

This scheme, were it chronologically accurate, would certainly be less objectionable than some others but the misfortune is, that it is built upon a gross error in calculation. Between the enacting of the decree of Artaxerxes in the seventh year his reign and the crucifixion of the Messiah, there are not sixty nine weeks and a half or 486 years, but précisely seventy weeks or 490 years. /

of

IV. A fourth class of commentators would adopt the first year of Cyrus as the date of the prophecy, an opinion anciently advanced by Eusebius and Clemens Alexandrinus.

1. Among these Dr. Blayney, the late eminently learned professor of Hebrew in the University of Oxford, has proposed an interpretation which differs radically and essentially from all those that have hitherto been considered, inasmuch as it is founded on a complete alteration of the numbers which heretofore have been the basis of every exposition. His authority for this alteration is partly the Greek version of Daniel by the LXX, the manuscript of which has long been sought after, and has at length been discovered in the Chigian library at Rome*; and partly conjectural emendations of this version, de

I have already observed, that the Greek version, which generally bears the name of the LXX, seems to have been the work of Theodotion.

duced

duced in a measure from two Hebrew manuscripts *.

*My remarks on Dr. Blayney's interpretation will be rendered more clear by exhibiting in one point of view his translation of the prophecy.

24. Weeks sufficient have been terminated (or completed) upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to check the revolt, and to put an end to sins, and to make atonement for iniquity, and to bring again the righteousness of ancient times, and to seal (that is, authenticate) the divine oracle and the prophet, and to anoint (that is, sanctify anew) the most holy things.

25. And thou shalt know and understand, that from the going forth of a decree to rebuild Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seventy and seven weeks and threescore and two years: it shall be rebuilt, still enlarging itself and becoming more and more considerable, even amidst times of dis

tress.

26. And, after the times seventy and seven and threescore and two, Messiah shall cut off from belonging to him both the city and the sanctuary; the prince that shall come shall destroy the people; and the cutting off thereof shall be with a flood (that is, a hostile invasion); and unto the end of a war carried on with rapidity shall be desolations.

27. But he shall confirm a covenant (or make a firm covenant) with many for one week and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and meat-offering to cease; and the abomination of desolation shall be upon the border (that is, encompassing and pressing close upon the city and the temple); and an utter end, even a speedy one (or even until an utter end, and that a speedy one), shall be poured upon the

desolated.

Instead

1

Instead of the numbers seven and sixty two in the 25th verse, and the number sixty two in the 26th verse, the translation in question reads in both places seventy seven and sixty two*; adding in one of the places the word times † to the number seventy seven, and in the other place the word years‡ to the number sixty two. In this translation therefore, the reading in the 25th verse is seventy seven times and sixty two; and that in the 26th verse, seventy seven and sixty two years.

Of neither of these readings much sense can be made: Dr. Blayney therefore, to improve them, has recourse to conjectural emendation, resting however in part upon a very ancient manuscript in the Bodleian library catalogued Laud A. 162, and presumed to be not less than 800 years old. nuscript, in the 25th verse, prefixes to substitutes the word for the word

That ma

'w, and

: so that,

,שבעים שבעה ושבעים ששים ושנים instead of

which both our translation, and every one of the ancient versions §, renders seven weeks and sixty and two

,שבעים שנה ושבעים וששים ושנים tweelis, it reads

seventy years and weeks both sixty and two. The first reading then of the Chigian Greek manuscript,

§ At least so the Syriac and Arabic read in the Latin translations of them.

1

in the 25th verse, is seventy seven times and sixty two: its second reading, in the 26th verse, is seventy seven and sixty two years: and the reading of the Laud Bodleian Hebrew manuscript is seventy years and weeks both sixty and two. these three readings Dr. Blayney selects, by the aid of conjecture, what he maintains to have been the genuine original reading of the 25th verse, seventy and seven weeks and threescore and two years.

Out of

The true reading of the 26th verse he supposes to be the times seventy and seven and threescore and two. This slight difference between the readings in the two verses, which (as he rightly observes) must be understood to speak of one and the same period, he makes on the authority of another ancient Bodleian manuscript catalogued Huntingdon, No. 12, which immediately subsequent to "

and after inserts 'ny the times. This reading he conceives to be the origin of the xapes in the Chigian Greek manuscript.

The seventy weeks in the 24th verse, with which the prophecy opens, still remain to be accounted for. Here Dr. Blayney makes no alteration in the original expression, except reading the first word

which is warranted by ,שבעים instead of שבועים

the collation of Dr. Kennicott and de Rossi, and which the Masoretic punctuation considers as the proper reading. But, instead of translating it weeks