Astronomy Explained Upon Sir Isaac Newton's Principles / And made easy to those who have not studied mathematics

by James Ferguson

Both Dr. Prideaux and Sir Isaac Newton are of opinion that Daniel’s seventy weeks, consisting of 490 years (Dan. chap. ix. v. 23-26) began with the time when Ezra received his commission from Artaxerxes to go to Jerusalem, which was in the seventh year of that King’s reign (Ezra ch. vii. v. 11-26) and ended with the death of Christ. For, by joining the accomplishment of that prophecy with the expiation of Sin, those weeks cannot well be supposed to end at any other time. And both these authors agree that this was Artaxerxes Longimanus, not Artaxerxes Mnemon. The Doctor thinks that the last of those annual weeks was equally divided between John’s ministry and Christ’s. And, as to the half week, mentioned by Daniel chap. ix. v. 27. Sir Isaac thinks it made no part of the above seventy; but only meant the three years and an half in which the Romans made war upon the Jews from spring in A.D. 67 to autumn in A.D. 70, when a final Period was put to their sacrifices and oblations by destroying their city and sanctuary, on which they were utterly dispersed. Now, both by the undoubted Canon of Ptolemy, and the famous Æra of Nabonassar, which is so well verified by Eclipses that it cannot deceive us, the beginning of these seventy weeks, or the seventh year of the reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus, is pinned down to the year of the Julian Period 4256: from which count 490 years to the death of Christ, and the same will fall in the above year of the Julian Period 4746: which would seem to ascertain the true year beyond dispute.

But as Josephus’s Eclipse of the Moon in a great measure fixes our Saviour’s birth to the end of the 4713th year of the Julian Period, and a Friday Passover Full Moon fixes the time of his death to the third of April in the 4746th year of that Period, the same as above by Daniel’s weeks, this supposes our Saviour to have been crucified in the 37th year of his age. And as St. Luke chap. iii. ver. 23. fixes the time of Christ’s baptism to the beginning of his 30th year, it would hence seem that his publick ministry, to which his baptism was the initiation, lasted seven years. But, as it would be very difficult to find account in all the Evangelists of more than four Passovers which he kept at Jerusalem during the time of his ministry, others think that he suffered in the vulgar 30th year of his age, which was really the 33d; namely in the year of the Julian Period 4743. And this opinion is farther strengthened by considering that our Saviour eat his last Paschal Supper on a Thursday evening, the day immediately before his crucifixion: and that as he subjected himself to the law, he would not break the law by keeping the Passover on the day before the law prescribed; neither would the Priests have suffered the Lamb to be killed for him before the fourteenth day of Nisan when it was killed for all the people, Exod. xii. ver. 6. And hence they infer that he kept this Passover at the same time with the rest of the Jews, in the vulgar 30th year of his age: at which time it is evident by calculation that there was a Passover Full Moon on Thursday April the 6th. But this is pressed with two difficulties. 1. It drops the last half of Daniel’s seventieth week, as of no moment in the prophecy; and 2. it sets aside the testimony of Phlegon, as if he had mistaken almost a whole Olympiad.

Others again endeavour to reconcile the whole difference, by supposing, that as Christ expressed himself only in round numbers concerning the time he was to lie in the grave, Matt. xii. 40. so might St. Luke possibly have done with regard to the year of his baptism: which would really seem to be the case when we consider, that the Jews told our Saviour, sometime before his death, Thou art not yet fifty years old, John vii. 57. which indeed was more likely to be said to a person near forty than to one but just turned of thirty. And as to his eating the above Passover on Thursday, which must have been on the Jewish Full Moon day, they think it may be easily accommodated to the 37th year of his age; since, as the Jews always began their day in the evening, their Friday of course began on the evening of our Thursday. And it is evident, as above-mentioned, that the only Jewish Friday Full Moon, at the time of their Passover, was in the vulgar 33d, but the real 37th year of Christ’s age; which was the 4746th year of the Julian Period, and the last year of the 202d Olympiad.

Æras or Epochas.

433. As there are certain fixed points in the Heavens from which Astronomers begin their computations, so there are certain points of time from which historians begin to reckon; and these points or roots of time are called Æras or Epochas. The most remarkable Æras are those of the Creation, the Greek Olympiads, the building of Rome, the Æra of Nabonassar, the death of Alexander, the birth of Christ, the Arabian Hegira, and the Persian Jesdegird: All which, together with several others of less note, have their beginnings in the following Table fixed to the years of the Julian Period, to the age of the world at those times, and to the years before and after the birth of Christ.

	Julian Period.	Y. of the World.	Before Christ.
1. The creation of the world, according to Strauchius	764	1	3949
2. The Deluge, or Noah’s Flood	2420	1656	2293
3. The Assyrian Monarchy by Nimrod	2537	1773	2176
4. The Birth of Abraham	2712	1948	2001
5. The beginning of the Kingdom of the Argives	2856	2092	1857
6. The begin. of the Kingdom of Athens by Cecrops	3157	2393	1556
7. The departure of the Israelites from Egypt	3216	2452	1497
8. Their entrance into Canaan, or the Jubilee	3256	2492	1457
9. The destruction of Troy	3529	2865	1184
10. The beginning of King David’s reign	3653	2889	1060
11. The foundation of Solomon’s Temple	3696	2932	1017
12. The Argonautic expedition	3776	3012	937
13. Arbaces, the first King of the Medes	3838	3074	175
14. Mandaucus the second	3865	3101	848
15. Sosarmus the third	3915	3151	798
16. Artica the fourth	3945	3181	768
17. Cardica the fifth	3996	3232	718
18. Phraortes the sixth	4057	3293	656
19. Cyaxares the seventh	4080	3316	633
20. The beginning of the Olympiads	3938	3174	775
21. The Catonian Epocha of the building of Rome	3961	3197	752
22. The Æra of Nabonassar	3967	3202	746
23. The destruction of Samaria	3990	3226	723
24. The Babylonish captivity	4133	3349	600
25. The destruction of Solomon’s Temple	4124	3360	589
26. The Persian monarchy founded by Cyrus	4154	3390	559
27. The battle of Marathon	4224	3460	489
28. The begin. of the reign of Art. Longimanus	4249	3485	464
29. The beginning of Daniel’s 70 weeks	4256	3492	457
30. The beginning of the Peloponnesian war	4282	3518	431
31. The death of Alexander	4390	3626	323
32. The restoration of the Jews	4548	3784	129
33. The corr. of the Calendar by Julius Cæsar	4669	3905	44
34. The beginning of the reign of Herod	4673	3909	40
35. The Spanish Æra	4675	3911	38
36. The battle at Actium	4683	3919	30
37. The taking of Alexandria	4683	3919	30
38. The Epoch of the title of Augustus	4686	3922	27
39. The true Æra of Christ’s birth	4709	3945	4
40. The death of Herod	4710	3946	3
41. The Diony. or vulg. Æra of the birth of Christ	4713	3949	AD0
42. The true year of Christ’s death	4746	3982	33
43. The destruction of Jerusalem	4783	4019	70
44. The Dioclesian persecution	5015	4251	302
45. The Epoch of Constantine the Great	5019	4255	306
46. The Council of Nice	5038	4274	325
47. The Epocha of the Hegira	5335	4571	622
48. The Epoch of Yesdejerd	5344	4580	631
49. The Jellalæan Epocha	5791	5027	1078
50. The Epocha of the reformation	6230	5466	1517

Tab. I. Shewing the Golden Number (which is the same both in the Old and New Style) from the Christian Æra to A.D. 4000.

Years less than an Hundred.
Hundreds of Years.				0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
				19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	37
				38	39	40	41	42	43	44	45	46	47	48	49	50	51	52	53	54	55	56
				57	58	59	60	61	62	63	64	65	66	67	68	69	70	71	72	73	74	75
				76	77	78	79	80	81	82	83	84	85	86	87	88	89	90	91	92	93	94
				95	96	97	98	99
0	1900	3800		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19
100	2000	3900		6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	1	2	3	4	5
200	2100	4000		11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
300	2200	&c.		16	17	18	19	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
400	2300	--		2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	1
500	2400	--		7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	1	2	3	4	5	6
600	2500	--		12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
700	2600	--		17	18	19	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16
800	2700	--		3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	1	2
900	2800	--		8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
1000	2900	--		13	14	15	16	17	18	19	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
1100	3000	--		18	19	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17
1200	3100	--		4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	1	2	3
1300	3200	--		9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
1400	3300	--		14	15	16	17	18	19	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13
1500	3400	--		19	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
1600	3500	--		5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	1	2	3	4
1700	3600	--		10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
1800	3700	--		15	16	17	18	19	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14

Tab. II. Shewing the Number of Direction, for finding Easter Sunday by the Golden Number and Dominical Letter.

G. N.	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19
A	26	19	5	26	12	33	19	12	26	19	5	26	12	5	26	12	33	19	12
B	27	13	6	27	13	34	20	13	27	20	6	27	13	6	20	13	34	20	6
C	28	14	7	21	14	35	21	7	28	21	7	28	14	7	21	14	28	21	7
D	29	15	8	22	15	29	22	8	29	15	8	29	15	1	22	15	29	22	8
E	30	16	2	23	16	30	23	9	30	16	9	23	16	2	23	9	30	23	9
F	24	17	3	24	10	31	24	10	31	17	10	24	17	3	24	10	31	17	10
G	25	18	4	25	11	32	18	11	32	18	4	25	18	4	25	11	32	18	11