We thank God for this, as we desire to know if we may depend upon Ptolemy's canon to help us fix to a certainty the seventh year of Artaxerxes.
According to Ptolemy, Artaxerxes succeeded to the throne in the two hundred and eighty-fourth year of the canon. In modern reckoning, this two hundred and eighty-fourth year runs from Dec. 17, 465 b.c., to Dec. 17, 464 b.c. The canon does not tell at what part of the year a king succeeded to the throne; it only deals with whole years. The question is, to be exact, Did Artaxerxes come to the throne in December, 465 b.c., or at some time in the year 464 b.c.? At what season of the year did the king take the throne? Some historians, dealing with the matter roughly, date the succession from the year 465. But in dealing with divine prophecy, we require certainty upon which to base the reckoning of the seventh year of Artaxerxes, from which date the prophetic period runs.
And in God's providence we do have certainty. Of all the kings of Assyria, Babylon, and Medo-Persia, in Ptolemy's long list, there is but one concerning whose succession the Scriptures give us the very time of the year—and that one is Artaxerxes. The one case in which we need to know to a certainty the season of the year, in order to fix an important date in prophecy, is the one case in which Inspiration gives exactly the particulars. Who cannot see the hand of God in this?
The combined record of Neh. 1:1; 2:1 and Ezra 7:7-9,[H] shows that Artaxerxes came to the throne between the fifth month of the Jewish year and the ninth month,—roughly, between August and December,—or in the autumn. The Bible gives one part of the record, and Ptolemy's canon gives another part; and by the combined record we know that Artaxerxes came to the throne late in the year 464 b.c., and thus the seventh year of his reign would be 457 b.c. This is the date fixed by other sources of reliable chronology also, Sir Isaac Newton having worked out several lines of evidence from ancient authorities, in each case reaching the year 464 b.c. as the first of Artaxerxes, which makes the seventh to be 457 b.c.
In the seventh year of Artaxerxes the commandment went forth to restore and to build Jerusalem, and this event fixes the beginning of the 2300 years, as also of the 490 years cut off from it upon the Jewish people.
That year, 457 b.c., therefore, is a date of profound importance. It stands like the golden milestone in the ancient Forum at Rome, from which ran out all the measurements of distance to the ends of the empire. From this date, 457 b.c., run out the golden threads of time prophecy that touch events in the earthly life and the heavenly ministry of Jesus that are of deepest eternal interest to all mankind today.
The Ransom Paid
Lord, I believe Thy precious blood,
Which, at the mercy-seat of God,
Forever doth for sinners plead,
Can cleanse my guilty soul indeed.
Lord, I believe were sinners more
Than sands upon the ocean shore,
Thou hast for all a ransom paid,
For all a full provision made.
—Nikolaus Zinzendorf.
THE ANOINTING OF JESUS AT HIS BAPTISM
"God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power." Acts 10:38. (See Matt. 3:16.)