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Rev 12:6. Εἰς τὴν ἔρημον) The wilderness is the western part of the world, Europe, or its districts in particular on this side of the Danube; for on the other side of the Danube the countries were already before this more imbued with Christianity. ערבה, the wilderness, and נזערב, the west, are connected by derivation. D. Laurence Reinhard, in his chronological arrangement of the Apocalypse, p. 14, rightly thinks that this passage has reference to the state of the Church from the ninth century.-ἡμέρας χιλίας διακοσίας ἑξήκοντα, 1260 days) The 1260 prophetic days are 657 ordinary years in full. And if you reckon these from A. 864 to 1521, you will certainly not be far from the truth. The woman obtained a firm place in the wilderness, in Europe, especially in Bohemia, and there, in particular, she was nourished; until more free and abundant nourishment was vouchsafed to her by means of the Reformation. The close of the 1260 days is the Reformation.[124] The close of the times, 1, 2, and ½, is the Millennium. Between the Reformation and the Millennium there is no more remarkable revolution, than the Reformation itself, the great importance of which is sufficiently perceived from this.
[124] By a somewhat different method of computation, in der Erkl. Offeneb. Ed. ii. p. 592, the commencement [terminus a quo] of the 1260 days (by which 677 ordinary years are there equally made up) is fixed not in the year 864, but 940, and the end [terminus ad quem] not in the year 152], that is, at the Reformation, but in the violent suppression of the Bohemian Church, which followed in the year 1617, so that the Reformation itself, ver. 14, finds its place in the middle of times 1, 2, ½, and speaking exactly in the middle of the binary number, which these times represent. That you may not think that a great leap is here made, Reader! I wish you to remember (aus der Einlcitung zur Erkl. Offenb. § 52), that a prophetical day comprises half an ordinary year, with the addition of about 14 days. If you take 14 full days: 1260 days, by this measure will make 678 years, with an addition (which Erkl. Offenb. nearly represents at the passage quoted); but if, instead of 14 days, you take 8, the sum of 657 years will come forth (which the Gnomon proposes, which is almost equally distant from Erkl. Offenb. c. ix. 15). The method of computation therefore itself introduces a difference of only 21 years (in which matter I would rather give the preference to Erkl. Offenb., the 2d Edition of which is certainly more recent than the Gnomon, than to the Gnomon): but the places assigned to the beginning and the end respectively [termini a quo et ad quem], vary within a space of 96 years; but this difference makes no variance as far as concerns the chief point of the subject, which comprises most important revolutions, and those brought about gradually. (Respecting a latitude of this kind, comp. den Beschluss der Erkl. Offenb. ii. St. p. 1082, and the next, or die Vorrede zu meiner erklärenden Umschreibung, etc., p. ix.) To this you may refer the conclusion which presents itself in der Erkl. Offenb., Ed. ii., p. 591. Also wären die 677, Jahre zwischen A. 1524 und 1624 ausgeloffen. In dem Raum dieser 100 Jahre ist nichts bedenklicher, als die Reformation, und die mit deren Bestätigung verknupfte betrübte Zerstörung der Bohmischen Bruder-Gemeine: und also ist bey soldier Revolution das Ziel der 677, Jahre order der 1260, prophetischen Tage zu suchen. Wir lassen einem jeden die Freyheit, das Jahr zn bestimmen: doch prüfe man, was folgt. A. 1517, nahm diess grosse Werk seinen Anfang. Die Böbmische Brüder-Gemeine, und die Reformation, stunden 100 Jahr nebeneinander, bis auf Jahr 1617.-Von A. 1617, kommt man mit 677 Jahren zwuïcke auf das Jahr 940.-und also geben die 1260, Tage den Periodum der böhmischen Kirche.-E. B.