CHAPTER IX
THE LAST WEEK
Just as Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage, thus sacrificing a precious heritage to satisfy a passing whim, so at the end of this story we find a descendant of Esau transferring his usurped kingdom to the great foe, Rome, at whose hands the Seventy Weeks Nation was to be irretrievably broken.
By the will of Herod, altered just before his death, his Roman masters became large beneficiaries. Having been appointed king of Judea by the Roman Senate, for the thirty-seven years 1 of his reign under Roman protection he had made them most costly gifts, and affected, either in gratitude or from less worthy motives, a cringing servility to the Roman leaders. He built towns to their honour, and adorned his palaces with inscriptions to their praise. He bequeathed almost fabulous sums to Augustus Caesar and his wife. If no formal cession of the kingdom had been made, such was the influence of Rome at the death of Herod that none of his nominees for place and power felt free to assume office without Rome’s consent.
During his last illness Herod made a will in favour of the sons of Malthaea, his Samaritan wife. Herod Antipas was nominated his successor, but, later, the will was changed and Archelaus was substituted for his elder brother. This change by the fickle Herod made Joseph and Mary, with their precious charge, afraid to go into Judea on their return from Egypt. 2
1 “Having reigned, since he procured Antigonus to be slain, thirty-four years; but since he had been declared king by the Romans, thirty-seven” (Josephus, Antiq. xvii, viii, 1).
2 Matthew ii, 22.
Seven days’ mourning were appointed, after which Arehelaus made a formal entry into the Temple, but the partisans of Antipas broke out in tumult. The brothers set out for Rome; Archelaus to obtain the Emperor’s confirmation of his appointment, and Antipas to press his claims as the elder son.
While the case was being heard in Rome a deputation of 500 Jews appeared before the Emperor’s court; and such was the number of Jews in the Roman capital at this time that the deputation was reinforced by 8,000 of their countrymen drawn from Rome itself. The deputation prayed for the cessation of royalty and the restoration of their former liberties. Augustus approved, generally, the will of Herod. Archelaus was confirmed in possession of about half of his father’s kingdom, which included Judea and Samaria, but was temporarily denied the title of king. He was granted the title Ethnarch, i.e. governor, or leader, of the people, with the prospect of becoming king should he prove worthy of that honour. Antipas was made Tetrarch of Galilee 1 with revenue equal to one-third of that of his younger brother.
It was thus made abundantly clear that the real master was Augustus Caesar. The throne of David in Jerusalem was empty. Judea was nothing better than a Roman province. The family of Herod held office in various parts of the country that had once been Palestine, but only on the sufferance of their Roman masters. The death knell of the Seventy Weeks Nation had been sounded. Archelaus antagonised both his Jewish [sic Judaean] and Samaritan subjects by his barbarous treatment of them, whereon they appealed to Caesar. The result was “In the ninth year of his government he was banished to Vienna,
1 Matthew xi, i. The term “king” in Mark vi, 14. is only a courtesy title.
a city in Gaul, and his effects were put into Caesar’s treasury.” 1 After this, Judea and Samaria were reduced to the status of an ordinary Roman province with a procurator subordinate to the prefect of Syria.
It is not considered necessary to recount in detail the reactions of Rome and Judea, since that story is sufficiently told in the gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The long dreamed-of Messiah had appeared. “Then came Jesus into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God, and saying, the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand.” 2 God had declared through Daniel: “From the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and three-score and two weeks,” 3 “weeks of years,” as Moffatt renders it. Sixty-nine weeks of years is 483 years. From the decree of Artaxerxes to the Baptism of our Lord is exactly 483 years. 4 This was a prophecy definitely related to the Jews [sic Judaeans]. “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city.” Daniel’s people were the Jews [sic Judaeans]. At the end of the sixty-ninth week Messiah was to appear. The time allotted had expired. Messiah appeared saying, “The kingdom of God is at hand.” Immediately after His Baptism Jesus began to gather around Him those with whom He would establish on earth the abiding Kingdom. One of the first was Andrew, who communicated to his brother Peter the glad tidings: “We have found the Messias.” 5 The Messiah, on whom their hopes had been so long set, was here, in their midst. As we have seen above, the throne in Jerusalem was vacant. The King, “whose right it is,” was ready
1 Josephus, Wars of the Jews, ii, vii, 3. 2 Mark i, 14.
3 Daniel ix, 25.
4 See the author’s work on Daniel, pp. I 17-1 18.
5 John i, 41.
to take His throne and reign. The Kingdom was at hand. All that was needed for the union of the King with his people was their glad acceptance. “He sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: ... and all things are ready: come unto the marriage.” 1 But they made light of it and would not come. He came to His own heritage, but His own people would not receive Him. 2 Their attitude was well expressed in another parable by our Lord: “We will not have this man to reign over us.” 3
During the last week of His ministry our Lord addressed to “the chief priests and the elders of the people” a parable heavy with fate. It foreshadowed their final rejection of the Messiah, known already to Him who sees the end from the beginning, and sounded the note of doom for the Seventy Weeks Nation.
“Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country:
“And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it.
“And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another.
“Again; he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise.
“But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son.
1 Matthew, xxii, 3-10. 2 John i, 11.
3 Luke xix, 14.
“But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance.
“And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him.
“When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen?
“They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons.
“Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?
“Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.
“And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.
“And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them.
“But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude, because they took him for a prophet.”
This weighty utterance was not lost upon the priests and Pharisees. “They perceived that He spake of them.” The Kingdom that had been at hand was now removed to the remote future and transferred from the Jewish nation to another nation.
The above Parable was uttered a few days before the Crucifixion. The Messiah was to be cut off in
the midst of the seventieth week. l In that fateful crisis the [Edomite-] Jews made their crucial choice. “We have no king but Caesar.” 2
But the seventy weeks of years had not expired at the time of the Crucifixion, nor was divine mercy exhausted. The early activities of the Pentecostal Church were concentrated on the Jews. [Question: Edomite- jews or true pureblooded Judaeans? It makes a lot of difference! C.A.E.] Commenting on the Parable of the marriage supper for the King’s son, Matthew xxii, 14, referred to above, Archbishop Trench observes: “This second summons I take to represent the invitation to the Jewish people [sic Edomite-jews of true Judaeans?], as it was renewed to them at the second epoch of the Kingdom, that is, after the Resurrection and Ascension.” But this gracious invitation was rudely spurned. “When the Jews [sic Edomite- jews of Judaeans?] saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said: It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles [sic lost Israel nations].” 3 The fateful hour had struck. The seventy weeks of years determined “upon thy people” had expired.
But the seventy weeks of years was determined not only “upon thy people,” but also “upon thy holy city.” During the last pregnant week before the Crucifixion our Lord, pointing to the marble Temple built by Herod, said: “There shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down.” 4 During the same week, He pronounced doom upon the city. “When He beheld the city He wept over it ... for the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee ... and shall lay thee even with
1 Daniel ix, 27. 2 John xix, 15
3 Acts xiii, 45, 46. 4 Matt. xxiv, 2.
the ground.” 1 “This generation (genea) shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled.” 2 The sentence of doom was passed during the seventieth week; it was carried out in the life-time of that generation. Forty years later, in 70 A.D., Titus destroyed both the city and the Temple. Scriptural usage assigns forty years to a generation. Thus, “Forty years long was I grieved with this generation.” 3 “I was grieved with that generation (genea).” 4
Jerusalem fell after a long and bloody conflict that probably has no equal in the annals of war. We are dependent on Josephus alone for our knowledge of this, and he himself was in the campaign, first as an enemy of Rome and later as a hostage in their hands. The struggle, which lasted for some three years, was precipitated by the seditious party, led by Eleazar, a youthful governor of the Temple, who refused to continue to accept offerings sent by the Roman Emperor. Ever since the time of Julius Caesar such offerings had been regularly made and accepted. 5 The story of the struggle is far too long to tell here. The forces of Rome were severely taxed, for the Jews [sic Edomite-jews] displayed a frenzied courage before which the disciplined legions often wavered. But in the end the trained soldiers won the day. The city suffered the fate foretold by our Lord. It was levelled with the ground. Josephus assures us that the wMsoNormalall “was so thoroughly laid even with the ground by those that dug it up to the foundation, that there was left nothing to make those that came thither believe it had ever been inhabited.” 6
The death roll seems almost unbelievable. The figures given by Josephus have been summarised and classified by Dean Milman as follows:7
1 Luke xix, 41 ff. 2 Matthew xxiv, 34.
3 Psalm xcv, 10. 4 Hebrews iii, 10.
5 Josephus, Wars of the Jews, ii, xvii, 2. 6 Ibid. vii, i, 1 .
7 Vol. II, pp. 100, 101.
BEFORE THE WAR UNDER VESPASIAN
At Jerusalem, killed by
Florus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,600
At Caesarea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20,000
At Scythopolis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13,000
At Ascalon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,500
At Ptolemais . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,000
At Alexandria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50,000
At Damascus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,000
At Joppa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8,400
Upon the mountain Asamvn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,000
The battle near Ascalon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,000
The Ambuscades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8,000
129,500
DURING THE WAR IN GALILEE AND JUDEA
At Japha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15,000
On Gerizim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11,600
At Jotapata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40,000
At Tarichea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,200
At Tarichea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,500
At Gamala . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9,000
At Gischala . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,000
In Idumaea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,000
At Gerasa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,000
Near the Jordan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15,000
118,300
At Jerusalem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,100,000
Carried forward 1,347,800
AFTER THE FALL OF JERUSALEM
Brought forward 1,347,800
At Machaerus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,700
At Jardes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,000
At Masada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 960
In Cyrene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,000
8,660
Total killed 1,356,460
PRISONERS
In Gischala . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,200
Near the Jordan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,500
At Jerusalem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97,000
Total prisoners 101,700
The Seventv Weeks Nation had run its course and ended its career in the ghastly convulsions reflected in the brief account given above. In closing this study we may well pause to ask how far the determination made for it had been fulfilled. Its charter is stated in general terms in Daniel ix, 24. Six results would be achieved, or six different processes would be completed, in the period assigned. These may be briefly dealt with seriatim.
1. To finish the transgression, that is, their transgression. By their rejection of the Messiah, more particularly by their plotting for His death, they filled up their sin.
2. To make an end of sins. In the seventieth week “God ... sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins,” 1 “and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world”2; “once in the end of the world had He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” 3
1 1 John iv, 10. 2 Ibid. ii, 2.
3 Hebrews ix, 26.
3. To make reconciliation for iniquity, i.e. atonement. The Hebrew word kaphar means to cover. Jacob used the same word in “I will appease him (i.e. Esau) with the present that goeth before me” (Gen. xxxii, 20). He would hide himself under, or behind, the gift and Esau would see him not as he actually was, or had been, but as he was in the gift. God looks upon the sinner as he is in Christ, covered with His robe of righteousness. Hence Paul’s ambition to “be found in him, not having my own righteousness ... but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.” 1 “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.” 2
4.To bring in everlasting righteouness. At the end of the seventy weeks period God would bring in an abiding atonement for all sin. Hitherto, there had been an annual Day of Atonement, but the repetition marked it as temporary. A permanent Atonement would be instituted, making the annual function unnecessary. At the end of the period the Messiah would be cut off. The words foretell a violent, or unnatural death. “The word, shall be cut off, never means anything but excision; death directly inflicted by God, or violent death at the hands of men. It is never used of mere death, nor to express sudden but natural death.” 3 Isaiah had foretold that the Suffering Servant would be “cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.” 4 As a consequence of Messiah’s death “There remaineth no more sacrifice for sins.” 5
5. To seal up vision and prophecy. “All the
1 Philippians iii, 9. 2 2 Corinthians v, 19.
3 Pusey, Lectures on Daniel the Prophet, p. 185.
4 Isaiah liii, 8. 5 Hebrews x, 26.
prophets and the law prophesied until John.” 1 With the arrival of John the Baptist the need of Messianic prophecy ceased. John, the Forerunner, antedated the Messiah by about six months. The Messiah was the end of Prophecy. “The things which God before had showed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled.” 2
6. To anoint the most holy. Kings and priests were the only officials anointed in the Old Testament times. Since the Messiah was to be both King and Priest it was fitting that He should be anointed. Our Lord was anointed by the Holy Spirit at His Baptism. “John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.” 3 In the synagogue of Nazareth Jesus declared, “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach,” etc. 4
The last verse of Daniel ix fittingly summarises the divine communication. The archangel Gabriel had announced his mission to show to Daniel what was determined for his people. He now informs him that, in the last week, Messiah will “confirm the covenant with many.” While Daniel’s people, in the wider sense, were the people of Israel, in the narrower sense they were the Jews [sic legitimate Judaeans, not the Edomite-jews]. We are probably justified, therefore, in reading “confirm the covenant with many Jews [sic authentic Judaeans, not Edomite- jews].” The records of the seventieth week are concerned mainly with the relation of the Messiah to the Jews [sic true Judaeans] and their attitude toward Him. On the eve of His crucifixion Jesus “took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it. For this is my blood of the new covenant (diatheke), which is shed for many for the remission
1 Matthew xi, 13. 2 Acts iii, 18.
3 John i, 32. 4 Luke iv, 18.
of sins.” 1 Such language was calculated to appeal to their understanding. Long before, in words now hoary with age and redolent of the people’s devotion, “Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you.” 2 Malachi had foretold the coming of “the messenger of the covenant.” 3 In the words of Isaiah, God had given His servant “for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles.” 4
During the last week the covenant was confirmed with many Jews [sic Judahites]. The activities of the early Church were devoted to them and they were invited to accept the Messiah as God’s appointed Redeemer and Saviour. In His post-Resurrection commission to His disciples our Lord had said unto them, “Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth,” 5 from which we must infer the Jews [sic Judahites] were to be their first objective. In writing to the Romans Paul three times puts the “Jew [sic Judah] first.” 6 In his Pentecostal address Peter stresses the same precedence. “Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you.” 7 Commenting on the Parable of the marriage supper for the king’s son, Matthew xiii, 1-14, Archbishop Trench observes: “This second summons I take to represent the invitation to the Jewish [sic racially pure Judahite] people, as it was renewed to them at the second epoch of the Kingdom, that is, after the Resurrection and Ascension.” But this gracious invitation was rudely spurned. “When the Jews [sic Edomite-jews] saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.
1 Matthew xxvi, 28. 2 Exodus xxiv, 8.
3 Malachi iii, 1. 4 Isaiah xlii, 6.
5 Acts i, 8. 6 Romans i, 16; ii, 9, 10.
7 Acts iii, 26.
Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said: It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, Lo, we turn to the Gentiles [sic lost Israel nations].” 1 That was in A.D. 45. The fateful hour had struck. The seventy weeks of years determined upon “Thy people” had expired. The covenant had been confirmed with many; by most of the Jews [sic citizens of Judaea] it had been rejected.
In the last week the Messiah would “cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease.” As shown above, page 90, “Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.” “Once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” “There remaineth no more sacrifice for sins.” As our High Priest for ever, Christ has taken His one complete and holy sacrifice and laid it upon the High Altar of God in heaven, and there “He ever liveth to make intercession for us.”
The desolation foreshadowed as taking place in the last week is to remain “even until the consummation, and that determined.” The desolation must be understood as meaning the state resulting from the withdrawal of the Divine presence. The sanctuary must needs be desolate when the Divine presence is withdrawn. Ezekiel saw the divine glory depart from the Temple and the city. 2 The desolation is to continue until the consummation which has been determined in the fore-knowledge of God. The word translated “consummation” is the Hebrew word kalah. It means “completion.” Isaiah used the same word in chapter x, 23, and again in xxviii, 22, where it is translated “consumption.” The former passage reads, “For the Lord God of hosts shall make a consumption, even determined, in the midst of the land,” and the latter, “For I have
1 Acts xiii, 45, 46. 2 Ezekiel xi, 23.
heard from the Lord God of hosts a consumption, even determined, upon the whole earth.” In the counsel of God the end, when the forces of evil shall be overthrown, is already determined. The desolation of the Holy Place must remain until Messiah comes in glory – the glory which Ezekiel saw depart – to occupy His rightful place in the Sanctuary, and at the heart of the national life of His people. From Ezekiel xliii, 1-6 we learn that the departed glory will return at the Restoration. “And he said unto me, Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet; where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever, and my holy name, shall the house of Israel no more defile.” At the time determined, the sanctuary will be cleansed, and the abomination that makes desolate removed.
The Divine Programme foretold in Daniel ix, 24 was carried out to the last detail. The cessation of sacrifice and oblation foretold in ix, 27 has also come to pass. God kept His word. The words of Solomon may be used appropriately here: “There hath not failed one word of all his good promises.” 1 There remains for fulfilment the removal, at the time appointed, of the abomination that makes desolate. It will be removed when the Messiah comes to take His place on the throne of His father David. That He will so come the Scriptures make abundantly clear, and the weary world, no less than the expectant Church, calls to the heavens, “Come, Lord Jesus, come.”
The Jewish [sic Judaean] nation, which might have shared in the benefits arising from the sacrifice of the Son of God, rejected the Messiah, with bitter consequences for itself. Christ’s haunting lament still echoes through the vaulted arches of time. “O Jerusalem,
1 1 Kings viii, 56.
Jerusalem ... how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not.” 1
“If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace!” 2 “Behold your house is left unto you desolate.” 3
1 Luke xiii, 34.
2 Ibid. xix, 42.
3 Matthew xxiii, 38.
END
span style=/spanMsoNormalspan
