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Rev 17:10. Οἱ πέντε, ὁ εἷς, ὁ ἄλλος) The Article has a force relative to those seven, who are distributed into five, and one, and the other.-ὀλίγον, a short space) This extends as far as the hour, in which not the other by himself, but the ten kings reign with the beast, Rev 17:12. The German Exegesis of the Apocalypse, and the Order of the times, contain a particular consideration of the times, but I wished to omit it in the Gnomon: and yet that theory so recurs that it even becomes wearisome. But if mathematicians, musicians, painters, and all artists, bestow pains upon the smallest subjects, and seek elegance in the smallest matters IN PARTICULAR, why should we not comply with prophecy showing itself most admirable in the smallest calculations? With respect to this also the works of THE LORD are exquisite [“sought out,” Engl. Vers.] דרושים, Psa 111:2. But no μικρολογία and curiosity of man can exceed or come up to their minute nicety. In Erkl. Offenb. p. 1072, we made a kind of experiment in attempting to arrange the times of the woman with wings and of the beast; and those times are now much more plainly consolidated, reference being repeatedly made to Daniel. Wherefore to those things which I have said in reply to D. Lange, on ch. Rev 13:1, Proposition 10, Observ. 29, I wish the following remarks to be added, without infringing that modesty and sobriety which I have often premised, until the event itself shall explain things which are still future.
Table:
The Termini.
A. Anno 1058. d. 2 Sept. fer. 4, The Woman obtains wings.
B. 1077. d. 1 Sept. fer. 6, The Beast out of the sea.
C. 1143. d. 25 Sept. fer. 7, Commencement of the xlii. months.
D. 1810. d. 21 Mai. (new style 1 Jun.) fer. 7, End of the xlii. months.
E. 1832. d. 14 Oct. fer. 2, Beast out of the bottomless pit; one hour.
F. 1832. d. 22 Oct. fer. 3, Beast increased with the kingdom of the ten horns.
G. 1836. d. 18 Jun. fer. 1, Beast vanquished.
Intervals.
The terminus, from which the particulars begin, being included and that which is subsequent being excluded:
Days and hours or weeks and days
A. 6938, 12. 991: 1½.
B. 24130, 31/7 8/7 9/7. 3447: 1 full.
C. 243495, precisely. 34785: 0.
D. 8170, 22 2/7 1/7 8/7. 1167: 2.
E. 7, 22 3/7 7/7 0/7. 1: 1 nearly.
F. 1335. 190: 5.
There are, altogether, 284,077½ days: there are 40,582½ weeks: there are 5797½ square weeks: there are 777 7/9 years: there are precisely 686 monads of Daniel (of which we shall speak presently).
First we will explain the Intervals, in the abstract; and afterwards the Termini, in the concrete.
Explanation of the Intervals.
The Interval A comprises 19 years, wanting 1 day.
B 66 66/999 years, precisely.
The Interval C comprises 666 666/999 years, precisely.
D 22 123/333 years, fully.
E 22/999 of a year, as nearly as possible.
F 3 218/333 years, fully.
ADEF conjointly 45 45/999 years, precisely.
ABDEF 111 1/9 precisely.
ABCDEF 777 7/9 precisely.
The seventy weeks of Daniel contain 490 monads, which conjointly are 555 5/9 years, as we have shown in the Order of the Times, ch. 10. The same Intervals are in a remarkable manner transfused into monads and weeks of the same kind.
The Interval C contains precisely 588 monads of the same kind, which are 12 square weeks.
B and D, conjointly, contain 78 monads, without the excess of a day.
BCD are 666 monads (or 275,795 5/14 days, which do not run out 17 hours beyond the appendices of the days of the interval BCD), by a wonderful harmony. For the number of the beast is said to be 666, in that mode of expression, by which that number is taken not in one way only. See Erkl. Offenb. p. 742. Thus the number 666 comprises the first and the second Portion of the duration of the beast.
AEF, conjointly, are 20 monads, without the defect of a day.
ABDEF are 98 monads, which are two square weeks.
ABCDEF, conjointly, are precisely 686 monads, or two CUBE WEEKS.
The numbers, and periods, which are equal under the enigma of different numbers, in Daniel and in the Apocalypse, are wonderfully ductile and versatile, so that they are interchanged with one another in the most connected and easy manner, which is a strong argument of the truth.
Explanation of the Termini.
A. The woman becomes possessed of wings: the beginning of the 3½ times. See Erkl. Offenb. p. 646.
B. Of the ascent of the beast out of the sea, and of the very day, Sept. 1, we have treated at ch. Rev 13:1, especially in Proposition 9. From that day is the previous flowing of the 666 2/3 years (see Erkl. Offenb. p. 1069), and that now hastening to its close. Before the completion of 5684 years from the creation of the world (see Ord. Temp. p. 300 [Ed. ii. p. 256]), or of 116 square weeks of years, there will be a possibility of estimating what must be expected before that close.
C. Of the power given to the beast for 42 months, and of the beginning of the months, we have treated at ch. Rev 13:18, § 12. The same is the number of the beast, 666.
D. When the 42 months have elapsed, it does not therefore immediately follow that the beast is not; for even before those months he was. But yet under the vial of the fifth angel the kingdom of the beast becomes so obscured, that it is in greater difficulty than it was before the beginning of the 42 months. Therefore we shall have to notice, at the proper time, whether at the close of the 42 months that angel is then at length about to pour forth his vial upon the throne of the beast, or whether the beast is even forthwith about to carry the whore, while he himself is not. This Interval, in which the beast is not, is properly added to the Half-time [Semitempusculum], of which the Ordo Temp, treats, p. 318. [Ed. ii. p. 271.]
E. The one hour, during which the ten horns receive the kingdom together with the beast, we interpret as a prophetical hour, for this reason, because it precedes the thousand years, so called in their ordinary signification; but it may also be taken to signify the ordinary, natural hour, because, although it falls as yet upon the gloomy times of the beast, yet it falls immediately after the number of the beast. The matter is for the most part in uncertainty. See Erkl. Offenb. Ed. ii. pp. 146, 147, 889.
F. The ten kings, and the beast, as soon as they shall have given the kingdom to him, shall harass the whore. Rome was founded Anno 3960 Per. Jul. d. 29 Oct. (as Des-Vignoles teaches in his Chronology at the close), feriâ 2. From that time to Ann. Dion. 1832, Per. Jul. 6545 d. 20 Oct. fer. 1, the excess of the Julian year being taken away, there are precisely 2585 years, or 134,878 weeks and about 6 days, from that feria 2 to this feria 1. Or, Anno 3960 Per. Jul. d. 29 Oct. is feria 2. From that time to A.D. 1834 P.I. 6547 d. 20 Oct. fer. 3, the excess of the Julian year being taken away, there are 2587 years precisely, or 134,981 weeks, 1 day, 8. 2′0. 2″4 from that feria 2 to the end of feria 3 (of March). Comp. Zeugniss der Wahrheit, p. 207, etc. What Rome is about to experience on her birth-day after 90 years, they who shall then be alive may notice.
These two intervals, E and F, are most closely connected. The saints shall be given into the hands of the single horn, or, as those of Zurich interpret it, the appointing of times and of laws (so parallel are the words of Psa 31:15) [shall be given into his hands], until A TIME AND TIMES AND A HALF-TIME [“the dividing of time”]: Dan 7:25. The other king, when he is come, must continue A SHORT SPACE (Rev 17:10). Concerning each passage we have conjectured many things in the treatise, Erkl. Offenb. p. 883. But a third passage assists us. The ten horns receive power as kings ONE HOUR with the beast, Rev 17:12. The short space is the interval EF conjointly; for it comprises the whole continuance of the other king, in the third Portion of the time of the beast: E is the one hour: F has the residue of the former intervals, that is, 1335 days, and those ordinary days. These are immediately followed by the 1335 prophetical days of Daniel (which the Ordo Temp. p. 379 [Ed. ii. pp. 326, 327], proves to be the thousand years which are promised, Dan 12:12); so that 1335 ordinary, wretched days, of waiting, i.e. of endurance, require to be understood; and 1335 prophetical, happy days, to be attained [ to be “come to,” Dan 12:12], are expressed. The words, who waiteth, and shall attain to, the thousand days, have great force from the accents. The time, and times, and half a time of Daniel, coincide with the interval F, if they do not complete it: and I assent to Lange, that they are 31/2 years, but amounting to 1278 days, in accordance with the natural truth, and not to 1260 days, as he takes them, and that they are not 1333 1/3 days, which might have come into the mind. Now, by what means also are the 1278 days and the 1335 reconciled? I will not say that either number of days is 3 years, with פלג part or half, and not four years; inasmuch as even the interval F, either apart from, or with the addition of the interval E, agrees with the ancient Tradition which represents Antichrist as about torage 31/2 years. But in Daniel the action of the beast out of the bottomless pit seems to be beheld in the land of Israel: in the Apocalypse the beast out of the bottomless pit has first something to occupy him out of that land also.
My Table may be considered doubtful in some particular article: but within its own limits it is throughout corroborated by strong exegetical and historical arguments. Those things contained in the period of the six intervals which are less clearly defined from the Apocalypse, are defined from Daniel, as the being of the beast before the 42 months, and the non-being of the same, and the short space of the other king; and the 3½ times, which in Daniel were plainly expressed, the Apocalypse shuts up into that short space; again, that which had been represented in Daniel by the enigma of 1335 days, the Apocalypse declares in the plain words of the expression, a thousand years. Are all these things by chance? We do not affirm all things with equal confidence: but still we put forward all things, that posterity may have something to notice, and, in accordance with the result, may partly correct, and partly approve of them.