Watson Refuted / Being an Answer to the Apology for the Bible, in a Series of Letters to the Bishop Of Llandaff

by Samuel W. Francis

You begin your sixth letter by attempting to disprove the arguments of Thomas Paine upon Jeremiah. You acknowledge the disorder that prevails in the writings of this prophet; and you modestly assure us, that you do not know the cause; no more do I: and whatever incidents might have occasioned it, I am certain that, as it stands, it deserves no degree of credit. In a former part of your pamphlet you grant, that the history of the Jews is so connected with the prophetical part, that if the former was done away the latter could not stand; and now you inform us, "that prophecy differs from history, in not being subject to an accurate observance of time and order." This you think a matter of no importance, but, in my opinion, it is very material to know if a prophecy is written after the events it alludes to. I shall not follow far, either your Lordship or Mr. Paine, in proving several of the prophecies of the Bible false; but if they are not prophecies, why should we trouble ourselves with disproving them. If they are scraps of history, we know that of the Jews to be so contradictory, imperfect, so completely without order, that one historical extract, of prophecy, will often contradict another; but much more generally these prophecies are strict enough, being copied from history, and embellished with a little of the figurative style of prophecy. As to Jeremiah, the works that go under his name, as well as those of Isaiah, appear on the face of them to be a collection of extracts from different historians.

While we know so little of the history and genuineness of these writings, we cannot possibly draw any conclusion concerning them, except that they are in the utmost disorder, and that when writers intermingle history with prophecy, we are at a loss to know which is which. I cannot forbear to mention the ludicrous story of Elisha, the children, the bears that devoured the children of men, as you are pleased to call them. Whether Elisha did this as a prophet, I cannot but declare my abhorrence at your approbation of such abominable cruelty, to murder individuals because they bestowed the appellation of Baldhead on another. According to the laudable custom of the church, you appeal to a miracle, and conclude, that if God wrought a miracle it must have been just. I suppose this comparatively as when he destroys whole cities for the sins of a few; but this is the very ground on which every crusader supported his massacres; and every man may imitate the conduct of Ahod, the treacherous murderer, patronised by Jehovah, without incurring the blame of a Bishop. Whether the ridiculous tale which you take for a sign of God, most probably of his cruelty, converted any person, is not known; but as the event most undoubtedly never happened, you may suppose what you please. To murder them is not the way to ingratiate ourselves with our fellow-citizens. If any person set a few bull-dogs on some children, and pretended to do so by authority from heaven, he would most undoubtedly be taken up by our officers of justice. In what respect do these brutal prophets differ from Mahomet, who decided all disputes by the sword? Their business was to exterminate and murder by the direct commands of God.

The writings of Ezekiel are considerably truncated. The very beginning of his prophecies shows it. The conjunction and texture of the whole work refers to something that ought to have preceded it. He begins saying, "That in the 30th year the heavens opened, and he saw visions of God." And in ver. 5, he adds, "That the Lord had inspired him often in Chaldea," which refers to some prophecies written in that period. Besides, Josephus's work, book 10, chap. ix. of the Jewish antiquities, says, "That Ezekiel had prophecied that Zedekiah should never see Babylon." This is no where found in Ezekiel, but, on the contrary, in chap. xi. and xii. he says, "That the king would be carried a prisoner to Babylon."

As to Daniel, I have already noticed the great similarity between the first book of Esdras and his, and the probability that they came from the same author. The seven first chapters, except the first, were written in Chaldean, and are by the most learned thought to be taken from Chaldean chronologists. It is also thought by men of great learning, that the books of Esdras, Daniel, and Esther, were altered a long time after Judas Maccabeus, because it appears evident that Esdras could not have written the whole of them, since Nehemiah carries the genealogy of Jesuhga, the sovereign Pontiff till Jaddua, the sixteenth in number, who after the defeat of Darius went to meet Alexander. And Nehemiah, ver. 22, "The Levites, in the days of Eliashib, Joiadah, and Johanan, and Jaddua, were recorded chief of the fathers; also the priests, to the reign of Darius the Persian." We have no reason to believe that Esdras or Nehemiah could survive fourteen kings of Persia, Cyrus having been the first who gave the Jews permission to rebuild the temple, from whom to Darius there are 230 years.

I now come to the famous prophecy of the seventy weeks of Daniel, which you exultingly mention as the most wonderful, and, at the same time, the most incontrovertible prediction in existence, one which never can fail to confound the most perverse unbeliever. If I prove, that so far from being the surprising prophecy you pretend, it has altogether a different meaning, and can nowise apply to the coming of Christ, I shall think myself fully excused, if I do not go through every individual prediction in the Bible. The passage alluded to is in Daniel, chap. ix. ver. 24, to 27, as follows: "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision, and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy. Know, therefore, and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem, unto the Messiah, the prince, there shall be seven weeks; and threescore and two weeks the streets shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself; and the people of the prince that shall come, shall destroy the city, and the sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many, for one week; and, in the midst of the week, he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease; and for the overspreading of abominations, he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate."

This passage is generally applied to the coming of Christ. The seventy weeks are supposed to mean weeks of years, or seven years each. Now it is evident, that it cannot apply to Jesus Christ; for if from going forth of the commandment in the time of Artaxerxes Longimanus, until the coming of the Messiah, there were to be seven weeks or forty-nine years, how does this agree with what follows? "After threescore and two weeks (or three hundred and seventy-four years) shall Messiah be cut off." And again, "He shall confirm the covenant with many for a week." Did then Jesus Christ live four hundred and twenty-three years, or are there two Messiahs predicted? Dr. Frideaux acknowledges that some parts of this prophecy are so injudiciously printed in the English translation of the Bible, that they are quite unintelligible; his alteration is in the punctuation, and according to it we read, that, from the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem, to the Messiah, the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks; and in verse 27, he puts the half of the week, instead of the midst. The explanation of the prophecy as thus altered, he gives as follows. From the commandment given to Ezra by Ar-taxerxes Longimanus, to the accomplishment of it by Nebemiah forty-nine years, or the first seven weeks; from this accomplishment to the time of Christ's messenger John the Baptist sixty-two weeks, or four hundred and thirty-four years; from thence to the beginning of Christ's public ministry, half a week, or three years and a half; and from thence to the death of Christ, half a week, or three years and a half; in which half week he preached and confirmed the gospel with many; in all, from the going forth of the commandment, till the death of Christ, seventy weeks, or four hundred and ninety years.

In the first place, we confidently assert that Dr. Prideaux followed his fancy, not the original Hebrew, when he altered the punctuation. He is, however, justified in the alteration of half of a week; but, granting all, let us see how it applies. Did the Messiah come after seven weeks from the commandment of Ar-taxerxes Longimanus? The explanation only says, that Nehemiah finished the work which Ezra began. What has this to do with the Messiah coming at the end of the first seven weeks? The prophet says, that after threescore and two weeks, the street and the wall shall be built. Again, and previously, that after the commandment for the city to be built, the Messiah shall come in seven weeks. The learned divine, on the contrary, makes Daniel say, that John the Baptist began to preach the kingdom of the Messiah sixty-nine weeks after the commandment, and in the first seven weeks he talks of nothing but building the temple. Again, how does the oblation cease in half a week? In fact, the same objection occurs here, as to the passage as it is written in our Bibles. Daniel speaks quite clear, when he says, that "from the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem, unto the Messiah, the Prince, shall be seven weeks." If we find, in whatever explanation of the prophecy, that Christ did not come forty-nine years after this commandment, and that he did not live four hundred and thirty-four years afterwards, the whole must be an untruth. And, if the first period of seven weeks is united with that of threescore and two, that is, if the period of rebuilding the city, and of the coming of the Messiah be the same, then let divines inform us whether this really came to pass, and reconcile it with what follows, in ver. 26, that the city is to be destroyed at the same time. Did Christ confirm any covenant with many for seven years?

Let us attempt to unriddle this enigma. The passage evidently talks of two Messiahs, or makes one live upwards of four hundred years; and is altogether unintelligible as it stands. For the better understanding of it, I shall quote some previous part of the same chapter, ver. 1. "In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans. 2. In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood by books, the number of the years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. 3. And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayers and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes. 4. And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said." After this follows his prayer, until the 20th verse; and, in the 21st the angel began to unfold a prophecy to Daniel, which begins in verse 24, and he promises to explain the mystery that had so much grieved Daniel, that is, the prophecy of Jeremiah; then follows the passage I have quoted: the alterations I conceive ought be made in the reading of which, I now proceed to mention. In verse 25, the sentence stops after the seven weeks, as it is in the English Bible, because in the original we find here the stop Atnach. In verse 26, instead of, shall Messiah be cut off? we ought to read, the oblation shall cease. This is the real meaning of the expression in the original, according to Tertullian, Eusebius, and Theodoretus. Eusebius says, Unctum (vel Christum) nihil aliud esse quam successionem Pontificum, quos unctos nominare S. Literae consueverunt. The Hebrew properly signifies perdetur unctio. Theodoretus understands by this word, the same as sacerdotes uncti. Excidetur unctus, signifies the same as the oblation shall be abolished; for the verb excido does not always signify to kill, but is applied to whatever falls into disuse that was once in practice, or any thing that perishes. It is in this sense used in many parts of Kings and Chronicles. Samuel says, excidi de altare. In Jeremiah, chapter xxxvii. ver. 18, the verb is used in the same sense, non de sacerdotibus Levitis excidet ur homo coram me, which is given in English, "neither shall the priests, the Levites, want a man (or cease to have a man) before me." In verse 27, "and he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week," means no more than the exemption of calamities, and is tantamount to, he shall let many remain in peace, as in Genesis, chap. vi. ver. 18, it is used in this sense.

To understand the real meaning of this pretended prophecy, the reader will remember, that Daniel mourned for the 70 weeks of captivity prophesied by Jeremiah; the vision of Daniel took place in the first year of Darius, King of Chaldea, that is, in the year 162 of Nebuchadnezzar; but, in chap. x. of Daniel we learn, that he ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh and wine into his mouth, till three whole weeks were fulfilled. Now, the term weeks is used in the Bible indiscriminately for weeks of years, or of days; here it appears clear it signifies the former, particularly as the whole relates to the 70 years of Jeremiah; and the angel, in chap. x. ver. 14, tells Daniel, in the same figurative style, "Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days, for yet the vision is for many days." If then Daniel wept three weeks of years, or 21 years, from the destruction of the temple, in the year 141 to the time of the vision in 162, (the angel, chap. x. ver. 13, says, that the prince of Persia withstood him 21 days, or years), it is easy to see what Daniel means. Jeremiah had prophesied a captivity of 70 years, of these, three weeks or 21 years were past; therefore Daniel, after entreating God to tell him "how many more years were wanting," received for an answer what follows, "At the beginning of thy supplications, the commandment came forth, and I am come to show thee."—"Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people to seal up the vision and prophecy," that is to complete the prophecy of Jeremiah; and we find,-therefore, that from the issuing the commandment to restore the Jews, and to build Jerusalem, or more properly from the revelation of the angel, (exitu Verbi), promising that Jerusalem should be rebuilt, ver. 23, to the coming of the Messiah, the prince, or Cyrus, who freed the Jews from the captivity, there were to be seven weeks, or 49 years, which, added to the three weeks already past, made the 70 years of Jeremiah. Cyrus is by Isaiah called the Lord's anointed: "Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him for Jacob my servant's sake." Cyrus gave, at that time, liberty to the Jews, as the reader may see in Ezra. It is evident, that the word commandment cannot mean any express order to build Jerusalem, for the angel says, just before he reveals the prophecy, "at the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth we know that Daniel began to address prayers unto heaven, at a time when there was no order to build the temple, on the contrary, the Jews were in captivity.

This is the most difficult part of the pretended prophecy, the remainder is plain. There shall be 62 weeks till the rebuilding of the wall. The writer alludes here to the building of the first temple under Zerubbabel and Jeshua, and then to the rebuilding of the wall, and restoration of the temple by Judas Maccabeus, after its profanation by Antiochus Epiphanes. The period of this last event is by the prophecy made to extend to 63 1/2 weeks, or 444 years. Let us see if chronology confirms this supposition. The temple was destroyed in the 141st year of Nabuch, or 4107 of the Julian period; add to this 444 years, or 63 weeks and a half, and we have the year 4551, or the second year of Judas Maccabeus, according to Josephus; who also informs us, that having conquered his enemies, he then built a wall about Sion, which is clearly meant in the words, "the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times," 1 Maccab. chap. iv. ver. 60. At that time also "they builded up the mount Sion with high walls," &c. Troublous the times certainly were; the Jews were fighting against the cruelty of Antiochtis Epiphanes. It is certain then, that after 343 years, or 69 weeks, the wall should be built, and although it was not really completed till about ten years after, it is presumable that the loose historian, or prophet, did not choose to alter the beautiful idea of 70 Weeks. We know how superstitiously the Jews respected not only the number 7, but all its different affections. We are besides informed, in the first book of Maccabees, that after the first depredation of Antiochus, the people rebuilt the city of David, and made walls and forts; this happened some years before the building of the wall by Judas, and brings the prediction nearer to historical accuracy.