“Writing to Prof. Stuart, Prof. Bush said: ‘I am not inclined precipitately to discard an opinion long prevalent in the church, which has commended itself to those whose judgments are entitled to profound respect. That such is the case in regard to the year-day calculations of prophecy I am abundantly satisfied; and I confess, too, at once to the pleasure that it affords me to find that that which is sustained by age is also sustained by argument.’ Again he says: ‘Mede is very far from being the first who adopted this solution of the symbolic term day. It is the solution naturally arising from the construction put, in all ages, upon the oracle of Daniel respecting the SEVENTY WEEKS, which, by Jews and Christians, have been interpreted weeks of years, on the principle of a day standing for a year. This fact is obvious from the Rabbinical writers en masse, where they touch upon the subject; and Eusebius tells us (Dem. Evangl. 8, p. 258—Ed. Steph.), that this interpretation in his day was generally if not universally admitted.’
“I have, in my own collection, writers on the prophecies, previous to the time of Mede, who interpret the 1260 days as so many years, and who are so far from broaching this as a new interpretation that they do not even pause to give the grounds of it, but proceed onward, as if no risk were run in taking for granted the soundness of the principle which came down to them accredited by the immemorial usage of their predecessors.’—Hierophant, vol. 1, p. 245.
“If the old, established principle of the year-day theory is wrong, then, said Prof. Bush, ‘not only has the whole Christian world been led astray for ages by a mere ignis fatuus of false hermeneutics, but the church is at once cut loose from every chronological mooring, and set adrift in the open sea, without the vestige of a beacon, light-house, or star, by which to determine her bearings or distances from the desired millennial haven to which she had hoped she was tending.’
“5. The Commencement of the Seventy Weeks.—These were believed by Mr. Miller to be the weeks of years—four hundred and ninety years—and commenced with the decree of Artaxerxes Longimanus to restore and build Jerusalem, according to Ezra seventh, B. C. 457. This has also long been considered by commentators to be a settled point; and it probably would not have been disputed were it not for a desire to avoid the conclusion to which Mr. Miller came, on the supposition that it was the beginning of the 2300 days. On so settled a point as this it is only necessary to mention such names as Horne (see Int., vol. 1, p. 336, vol. 4, p. 191), Prideaux (see Connection, pp. 227-256), Clarke (see Notes on 9th of Daniel), Watson (Theol. Dic., p. 96), William Howel, LL. D. (Int. of Gen. His., vol. 1, p. 209), Scott, and Cunninghame.
“This point was not much questioned by any. A Mr. Kindrick, in a ‘New Exposition of the Prophecies of Daniel,’ said: ‘They are seventy years only, and commenced with the birth of Christ and ended with the destruction of the Jewish nation.’—p. 4. Rev. Calvin Newton affirmed, in the Christian Watchman, that they were fulfilled in seventy literal weeks. And Prof. Stuart said: ‘It would require a volume of considerable magnitude even to give a history of the ever-varying and contradictory opinions of critics respecting this locus vexatissimus; and perhaps a still larger, to establish an exegesis which would stand. I am fully of opinion that no interpretation as yet published will stand the test of thorough grammatico-historical criticism.’—Hints, p. 104.
“Mr. Shimeal, while he admitted that they are weeks of years, commenced them four years later than Mr. M.
“Dr. Hamilton sustained Mr. Miller on this point. He said: ‘The interpretation which Mr. Miller gives of Daniel’s seventy weeks, commencing with the decree of Artaxerxes Longimanus, in the seventh year of his reign (B. C. 457), for the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and terminating with the death of Christ, A. D. 33, is, in the main, correct, because here Mr. M. but gives a tolerably faithful report of the result of the labors of the learned Prideaux and others in this field of research.’—p. 18. This interpretation was not denied by Dr. Jarvis, Mr. Hinton, and Mr. Morris. And Dr. Dowling said: ‘Mr. Miller says the four hundred and ninety years begin B. C. 457, which is correct. He says they end A. D. 33, which is also correct.’—p. 49.
“6. The connection between the 70 weeks and 2300 Days.—This was a vital point in the chronology of Mr. M. to bring the end in 1843. The Rev. William Hales, D. D., the most learned modern chronologer, says: ‘This simple and ingenious adjustment of the chronology of the seventy weeks, considered as forming a branch of the 2300 days, was originally due to the sagacity of Hans Wood, Esq., of Rossmead, in the county of Westmeath, Ireland, and published by him in an anonymous commentary on the Revelation of St. John, Lon., 1787.’—New Anal. Chro., vol. 2, p. 564. He elsewhere calls it ‘the most ingenious of its class.’
“The argument which Mr. Miller used in support of this point was based upon the literal meaning of the Hebrew word, which, in our version of Daniel 9:24, is rendered ‘determined’—cut off, or cut out,—and the circumstances in which Gabriel appeared to Daniel, as stated in the ninth chapter, with the instruction given.
“In the 8th chapter of Daniel is recorded a vision which was to extend to the cleansing of the sanctuary, and to continue 2300 days. Daniel had ‘sought for the meaning’ of that vision, and a voice said: “Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision.” Gabriel said to Daniel: ‘I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation; for, at the time appointed, the end shall be;’ and then proceeded to explain the symbols, but said nothing of their duration. At the close of the explanation Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days; and he says he ‘was astonished at the vision, but none understood it.’