Recent Expositions of Daniel. By Prof. W. H. Green, D. D. [pp. 397-424]

Zlecent Expositions of Da?zniel.
time he does not accept the current interpretation of it which
has prevailed among believing expositors from the beginning,
and which finds-here predicted the advent of Christ, his crucifixion, and the consequent destruction of Jerusalem by the
Romrnans. The chief difficulty which he alleges, in fact the
only one of any moment, concerns the chlronological exactness
of the fulfilment. He imnpugns this, but without good reason,
as appears from the following estimate quoted by himself from
Hengstenberg. The twentieth year of Artaxerxes, when the
first effectual measures were taken for the rebuilding and
restoration of Jerusalem, corresponds with 455 B. c., or the
year of Rome 299. Christ's entrance upon his public ministry and his anointing by the Holy Ghost took place, according
to Luke iii. 1, in the year of Rome 782. The interval is precisely 483 years, or in the language of the prophecy "' seven
weeks and tlhreescore and two weeks," each week representing
a period of seven years. In the midst of the following week,
or three years and a half after his baptism, our Lord suffered
death on Calvary, thus mnakiig, an all-sufficient atonement for
the sins of men, and causing the typical sacrifices and oblations of the old economy to cease.
To this demonstration of the precise accuracy of the prophetic announcement, Keil first mentions an objection, p. 317,
uponl which, however, he very properly does not insist. "We
shall not urge," he says, "against the exactness of the fulfilment arrived at by this calculation that the terminus a guo
adopted by Hengstenberg, viz.: the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, coincides with 455 B. C., only upon the assumption that
Xerxes reigned but eleven years, and Artaxerxes came to the
throne ten years earlier than in the cornmmon chronology, according to which Xerxes reigned twenty-one years; because
the arguments for and against this view are evenly balanced.
In the uncertainty which attaches to many points of ancient
chronology, we shall attach no weight to the figuring out to
a year, but shall regard the approximate coincidence of the
predicted time with that which has actually elapsed as a sufficient proof that there may possibly have been an exact correspondence in the number of years, and that no one can at
any rate prove the contrary."
414
[JULY,