“Three years subsequent to that vision, Daniel—understanding ‘by books the number of years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem,’—set his face unto the Lord to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes. He proceeded to confess his own sins and the sins of his people, and to supplicate the Lord’s favor on the sanctuary that was desolate. While he was thus speaking, Daniel says:—‘Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation; and he informed me, and talked with me, and said: ‘O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to show thee; for thou art greatly beloved; therefore understand the matter and consider the vision. Seventy weeks are determined’ &c. ‘From the going forth of the decree to restore and to build Jerusalem unto Messiah the Prince:’—after which Jerusalem was to be made desolate ‘until the consummation.’—Dan. 9:20-27.
“Dr. Gill, a distinguished divine and scholar, rendered the word ‘determined,’ cut off, and is sustained by good scholars.
“Hengstenberg, who enters into a critical examination of the original text, says: ‘But the very use of the word, which does not elsewhere occur, while others, much more frequently used, were at hand, if Daniel had wished to express the idea of determination, and of which he has elsewhere, and even in this portion, availed himself, seems to argue that the word stands from regard to its original meaning, and represents the seventy weeks, in contrast with a determination of time (en platei), as a period cut off from subsequent duration, and accurately limited.’—Christology of the Old Test., vol. 2, p. 301. Washington, 1839.
“Gesenius, in his Hebrew Lexicon, gives cut off as the definition of the word, and many others of the first standing as to learning and research, and several versions have thus rendered the word.[21]
“Such being the meaning of the word, and such the circumstances under which the prophecy of the seventy weeks was given, Mr. Miller claimed that the vision which Daniel was called on to consider, and respecting which Gabriel was to give him skill and understanding, was the vision of the 8th chapter; of which Daniel sought the meaning, which Gabriel was commanded to make him understand, but which, after Gabriel’s explanation, none understood; and that the seventy weeks of years—i. e., four hundred and ninety that were cut off—were cut off from the 2300 days of that vision; and, consequently, that those two periods must be dated from the same epoch, and the longer extend 1810 years after the termination of the shorter.
“The same view was advocated by several English divines. Rev. M. Habershon says: ‘In this conclusion I am happy in agreeing with Mr. Cunninghame, who says, “I am not aware of any more probable era which can be selected for the commencement of the 2300 years than that which has been chosen by some recent writers, who supposed this period to have begun at the same time with the seventy weeks of Daniel, or in the year B. C. 457, and consequently that it will terminate in the year 1843.”’—Hist. Dis., p. 307.
“The celebrated Joseph Wolf, though dating the seventy weeks and 2300 days from B. C. 453, commenced them at the same epoch.—Missionary Labors, p. 259. And Dr. Wilson, of Cincinnati, who is high authority in the Presbyterian church, in a discourse on ‘Cleansing the Sanctuary,’ says: I undertake to show that Daniel’s ‘seventy weeks’ is the beginning or first part of the ‘two thousand three hundred days’ allotted for the cleansing of the sanctuary; that Daniel’s ‘time, times, and a half’ is the last or concluding part of the 2300 days.’
“Prof. Stuart, Dr. Dowling, Prof. Chase, and others, who denied the year-day calculation when applied to the 2300 days, of course dissented from Mr. Miller on this point. Dr. Dowling went so far as to deny(!) that the Hebrew article hai (the) is in the phrase ‘the vision.’ in the original of Dan. 9:23.
“Of those who admitted the year-day theory, Dr. Hamilton, Dr. Jarvis, Mr. Hinton, and Dr. Pond, denied any connection between the two periods. Dr. Hamilton commenced the 2300 days B. C. 784, and ended them with the era of the Reformation, A. D. 1516. The others did not hazard any opinion respecting the time of their commencement.
“Mr. Miller was supposed to be sustained on this point by Prof. Bush, who did not consider him in any serious error respecting the time. And Mr. Shimeal said, ‘I trust it will not be deemed a violation of that modesty which becomes me, if, for the reasons here given, I withhold my assent from the conclusion of the Rev. Dr. Jarvis on this subject; which is that the seventy weeks form no part of the two thousand three hundred days.’—p. 34.