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THE COVENANT PUBLISHING CO., LTD.
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FOREWORD
The title indicates the scope and purpose of this essay. It does not pretend to be more than an outline of the history of the Seventy Weeks Nation which Daniel said would arise. To have written that history in full would have required a bulky volume, which would have defeated the object in view.
My aim has been, first, to show that history answers to Prophecy in that just such a nation flourished for just such a time as Daniel forecasted, and, by so doing, to show that the Bible is God’s revealed Word, in which we may have the most implicit confidence; and, secondly, to provide the interested reader with a simple guide to his own further research, should he desire to pursue the study.
The sources for this period of history are few, and, as far as the Jews are concerned, somewhat scanty. Among Greek writers, Herodotus (circa 484-425 B.C.), Xenophon (circa 435-354 B.C.), Strabo (63 B.C.-A.D. 25), and Plutarch (circa 46 B.C.-?) and among Roman writers, Polybius (circa 204-I22 B.C.), Livy (59 B.C.-A.D. 17) and Tacitus (circa A.D. 55-120) help us a little, but our chief extra-biblical authority is the Jewish [sic Judaean] historian Josephus (A.D. 37-100).
This essay trips hurriedly and, in some parts, lightly across the pages of history with a minimum of detail sufficient to make a continuous story, but I have tried to indicate in passing where the fuller story may be found.
“God fulfils Himself in many ways,” and to trace in history the fulfilment of His inspired Word is to find a new ground of confidence and a further cause for praise,
ALBAN HEATH.
Harrow Weald College.
| CONTENTS | |
| CHAP. | PAGE |
| A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 7 |
| I. THE SCATTERING OF ISRAEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 11 |
| II. THE RETURN OF THE BABYLONIAN EXILES | 18 |
| III. THE FOUNDING OF THE SEVENTY WEEKS NATION . . . | 24 |
| IV. A NATION WITHOUT A HISTORY . . . . . . . . . | 33 |
| V. THE HIERARCHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 40 |
| VI. THE MACCABEES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 51 |
| VII. THE ASMONEAN KINGDOM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 62 |
| VIII. HEROD, CALLED “THE GREAT” . . . . . . . . . . | 74 |
| IX. THE LAST WEEK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 80 |
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE
B.C.
745-727 Tiglath Pileser, who deported Israelites.*
727-722 Shalmaneser V, who deported Israelites.*
722-705 Sargon II, who deported Israelites.*
705-681 Sennacherib, who deported Judahites. *
604-561 Nebuchadnezzar, who deported Judahites. *
538-529 Cyrus, who overthrew neo-Babylon and issued his edict permitting the return to Jerusalem. *
515 Completion of Zerubbabel’s Temple.
478 Esther married to Xerxes I.
465-424 Artaxerxes I, who issued the command to restore and to build Jerusalem.*
458 Exiles return under Ezra.
445-444 Nehemiah arrives in Jerusalem and rebuilds the walls.
333-323 Alexander the Macedonian overthrows the Persian Empire and visits Jerusalem.
321 Onias I made high-priest.
320 Ptolemy I, Satrap of Egypt, takes Jerusalem and deports many Jews to Alexandria.
314 Antigonus of Syria takes Palestine from Egypt.
302 Ptolemy retakes Palestine.
301 The battle of Ipsus in which Antigonus is defeated and the empire of Alexander is divided into four kingdoms as foretold in Daniel viii, 22.
300 Simon the Just made high-priest.
292 Eleazar made high-priest.
285-247 Ptolemy II (Philadelphus), King of Egypt. During his reign the Septuagint was made.
277 Manasseh made high-priest.
250 Onias II made high-priest.
*The authority for these dates is the British Museum: A Guide to the Babylonian and Assyrian Antiquities.
B.C.
217 Simon I I made high-priest. The Battle of Raphia in which Ptolemy defeats Antiochus, but being prevented from entering the Holy of Holies he persecutes the Jews in Alexandria.
205 Antiochus the Great takes Palestine ? 198.
198 Onias III made high-priest.
175 Jason buys the high-priesthood from Antiochus.
172 Menelaus outbids Jason and becomes high-priest.
168 Antiochus Epiphanes takes Jerusalem, slays 40,000 people, desecrates the Temple.
167 The Maccabean revolt begins.
165 Judas Maccabeus retakes Jerusalem, purifies and re-dedicates the Temple.
163 Alcimus made high-priest. Menelaus slain.
161 Death of Judas Maccabeus, his brother Jonathan succeeds him:
153 Jonathan becomes high-priest as well as national leader, and so becomes the first of the Asmonean priest-princes.
143 Siinon, the last of the Maccabean brothers, becomes high-priest.
135 Simon is murdered, and his second son, John Hyrcanus, succeeds him.
130 John Hyrcanus throws off the Syrian yoke and destroys the rival temple on Mount Gerizim.
107 Aristobulas succeeds his father, John Hyrcanus, and calls himself King of the Jews.
106 Alexander Janneus drives his brother Aristobulus from the throne.
79 Death of Janneus. His widow, Alexandra, becomes queen with the support of the Pharisees. Her son Hyrcanus is made high-priest.
B.C.
70 (69?) Death of Alexandra. (See note at the end.) Hyrcanus II succeeds her, but is driven off the throne by his younger brother . Aristobulus.
65 Hyrcanus tries to recover the throne.
63 Pompey supports Hyrcanus and takes Jerusalem.
54 Crassus plunders the Temple.
47 Julius Caesar appoints Antipater Proconsul of Judea. Antipater makes his son Herod Governor of Galilee, and another son, Phasael, Governor of Jerusalem.
40 The Parthians take Jerusalem and Phasael is slain. Herod flees to Rome, and is appointed King of Judea.
37 After a seige of six months, Herod takes span style=/spanletter-spacing: .3ptstrong font-size: 14.0ptJerusalem, and as King of Judea reigns thirty-four years.
35 Herod makes Aristobulus III, brother of his wife Mariamne, high-priest, but afterwards causes his death.
29 Herod has his Asmonean wife, Mariarnne, executed.
17 After two years of preparation Herod begins the building of the Temple.
4 Birth of Jesus Christ.
The death of Herod.
A.D.
30 The Crucifixion.
70 The destruction of Jerusalem by Titus.
NOTE. – The above chronological table does not pretend to be absolutely accurate in all its details. Many difficulties are encountered in the field of chronology which cannot be discussed here. Authorities vary in their conclusions, though the differences are, in the main, slight. The above table is sufficiently accurate for a general survey. Whether, e.g., Alexandra died in 70 or 69 B.C. makes no material difference.
“Understand the matter, and consider the vision. Seventy weeks (of years) are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
“Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
“And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
“And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”
