The period of the
destruction of
Jerusalem
Tyconius said the two witnesses of Revelation 11 represent the pure
Church, the Lord's body in the world, prophesying and preaching through
the two testaments. He interpreted the 1260 days as 350 years.
1 BC - 1260 AD
Joachim divided the history of salvation into several distinct eras and preached that the final era, the dispensation of the Holy Spirit, was emminent. He identified the 1,260 days with the period between the advent of Christ and 1260 AD.
1 BC - 1260 AD
Gerardo
published a work called the Introduction
to the Eternal Gospel, which
was an interpretation and summary of Joachim's three major works.
Gerardo's Introduction
claimed that the third status would arrive in
A.D. 1260, signaling the total abrogation of the church of the second
status, including the substitution of Joachim's writing for the Old and
New Testaments. Gerardo's work created such a scandal that a papal
commission was held at Anagni under Alexander IV in A.D. 1255, which
condemned the Introduction, but
not Joachim himself. Gerardo was
imprisoned for life.
135 AD - 1395 AD
Brute said the
1,260 and 1,290
days of prophecy were so many years, to be
reckoned from the Hadrian desolation of Jerusalem to his own day.
In his book Praelections vpon the
sacred and holy Reuelation of S. Iohn, Fulke wrote the following about Revelation
11:2:
And the holy city they shall tread under foot two and forty months
&c.
The wicked and profane gentiles shall tread under foot, that is, shall
grievously oppress, persecute, and afflict the Church of God, to the
full space of two and forty months, that is for that time which Christ
doth grant unto Antichrist to rage in cruelty against the godly. Some
do count the number of months, from the first persecutions of the
christians by the Roman conquerors, even till the time of the emperor
Constantine which granted peace, unto the churches. But let them which
maintain that opinion see how certain it is. But to me it seems more
plain that under numbers the certain fixed, and determinate time of the
persecution of antichrist is assigned, which he cannot pass, although
he fret fume and rage never so much. For the Lord hath counted the same
time by months days and hours. The reason of the numbers seemeth to be
of this sort, this time which sometime is called two and forty months,
sometime a thousand two hundred and sixty days, sometime a time two
times and half a time, maketh in all three years and an half, that is
the one half of a prophetical week, which time also is called three
days and an half. And this place alludeth to the weeks of years in the
9 Chapter of Daniel. Whereupon we gather to the great consolation of
the Church, that a short time is appointed to Antichrist to wait the
same, which is also shewed twice afterward in the 12 Chapter and in the
20, that a short space of time is permitted to the devil that he may
strive with all his force to beat down the Church, this interpretation
as most simple and plain pleases me best; those that seek more subtler
may follow their own judgment.
412 AD - 1672 AD
Chytreus suggested the 1,260 years began with the overthrow of the Western Roman Empire by Alaric in 412.
606 AD - 1866 AD
Pareus claimed the
1,260 years
began with the decree of Phocas in 606.
300 AD - 1560 AD;
316 AD - 1576 AD
Napier's Proposition 36 in A
plaine discouery of the whole Reuelation of Saint Iohn,
1593, said the 42 months are 1260 years which began about the
years 300 or 316 Ad. He identified the pope professing himself to be
the head of the church as the Antichrist, and the fulfillment of Paul's
prophecy in 2 Thess. 2.
313 AD - 1573 AD
Brocard supposed the 42 months or 1,260 years of trampling of the
holy city
began with the reign of pope Sylvester. He wrote:
Now at this time when we shall come to the end of 1260 years, the
beginning being taken from Pope Sylvester, the church, and the
government thereof shall be given to those who hold the testimony of
Christ. The new Prophets and the worthy Petarcha famous for godliness
and learning do recken that those 1260 days are set for years, for the
year of our Lord 313 unto the time when with power and might Christ
shall bring his Church out of the desert, then if to those 1260 years
you add 313, in the which year Sylvester took the red garment for the
black, there shall be 1573 years, when both in France, Holland and
Zelande the Gospellers having been trodden down oppressed, put to
death, burned and slain lifted up themselves, and afterward made their
foes afraid, as it is said hereafter.
[The Reuelation of S. Ihon reueled or a paraphrase opening by conference of time and place such things as are both necessary, and profitable for the tyme present: writen in Latine by Iames Brocard, and Englished by Iames Sanford Gent., Imprinted at London : In Fleetestreate neare vnto S. Dunstones Church by Thomas Marshe, 1582.]
476 AD - 1736 AD
Mede equated seven time prophecies which contained time spans of 3 1/2 years, 1260 days, or 42 months (Dan.7:25; 12:7; Rev.11:2,3; 12:6,14; 13:5). These, he explained must apply to the antichristian power of papacy.
606 AD - 1848 AD
An English clergyman and interpreter of the Apocalypse, Cressener in 1690 said the years of the period should be taken as 360 days each, and shortened the period of 1,260 days to 1,242. Thus he proposed 1848 as the critical year in the downfall of the papacy.
Newton proposed 360 days for each prophetic year and 30 days to a prophetic month. Thus, unlike Mede, he disassociated prophetic time from solar or lunar calendars; "he specified the time vaguely, at about the time of the invasion of the Barbarous nations and their erecting several Kingdoms in the Roman Empire," and "it being certain that 1200 of the 1260 years are run out already."
1143 AD - 1810 AD
In Bengel's scheme, a prophetic day was 1/2 year and about 8 days, or 190 + 20/21 days; a prophetic year was 190 + 20/21 natural years or 69570 days.
606 AD - 1866 AD
Gill maintained that the date when the Bishop of Rome was made Universal Bishop, or Pope, should be considered that of the decree of the Emperor Phocas in 606; "if to this we add 1,260 the expiration of his reigns will fall in the year 1866, so that he may have upwards of a hundred and twenty years yet to continue; but of this we cannot be certain; however, the conjecture is not improbable."
533 AD - 1793 AD;
606 AD - 1866 AD;
727 AD - 1987 AD
For the 1260 day/year period Newton suggested at least three starting points. The earliest is with Justinian's degree (533 AD), the second Phocas' degree in 606 (this had the additional benefit of being also the beginning of Mohammed's rise to power), and the third the early 8th century when the pope was established as a "temporal prince."
606 AD - 1866 AD
Galloway wrote: "If, then, we date the rise of the two apostacies in the year 606, which has just been proved to be the true time, the witnesses have now prophesied in 'sackcloth' 1195 years of the 1260 so that there are only 65 years to come, before they will have 'finished their testimony,' according to our present mode of calculation. But if the prophet calculated by synchronical years, or only 360 days to a year, according to the Jewish mode of computation, when he wrote, as some commentators suppose, and which indeed, is most probable, there remain only 48 years before the witnesses shall have finished their testimony in sackcloth."
Link [p. 108]
606 AD - 1866 AD
Faber wrote: "Some have supposed, that the 1260 years are already expired, and that their expiration took place about the commencement of the French revolution. As yet I have seen no sufficient reasons to induce me to assent to this opinion. According to the most natural interpretation of Dan. xii. 6, 7, the interpretation adopted by Mr. Mede and other eminent expositors, the interpretation which best harmonizes with parallel prophecies, the Jews will begin to be restored so soon as the three times and a half shall have expired. But the Jews have not begun to be restored. Therefore we scarcely seem warranted in supposing that the three times and a half have expired. However this may be, I have little doubt that the wonderful shaking of nations during these last eighteen years is preparatory to the return and conversion of God's chosen people, and to the final overthrow of his congregated enemies."
538 AD - 1798 AD
Miller claimed that the one thousand two hundred and sixty years of the papacy were to be reckoned from A. D. 538, by virtue of the decree of Justinian. This decree, though issued A. D. 533, did not go into full effect until 538, when the enemies of the Catholics in Rome were subjugated by Belisarius, a general of Justinian.
Miller adopted the Protestant view, that they represent years. There is probably no point respecting which Protestant commentators have been more agreed than this. Faber, Prideaux, Mede, Clarke, Scott, the two Newtons, Wesley, and almost every expositor of note, have considered this a settled question. Indeed, so universal has been this interpretation of these periods that Professor Stuart says: 'IT IS A SINGULAR FACT THAT THE GREAT MASS OF INTERPRETERS in the English and American world have, for many years, been wont to understand the days designated in Daniel and the Apocalypse as the representatives or symbols of years. I found it difficult to trace the origin of this GENERAL, I might say ALMOST UNIVERSAL, CUSTOM.'
533 AD - 1793 AD
Irving was the first expositor who ventured to connect particular predictious with the events of the French Revolution. According to him, the Papacy commenced in A.D. 533, which, with the 1260 prophetic days or years of its continuance, brings Popery down to the year 1793, the year when the French Revolution commenced, at which date Mr. Irving considers the reign of Popery to have been superseded by that of Infidelity, and the judgments upon Babylon to have commenced.
67 AD - 70 AD
Russell has been called the father of full preterism; he saw the second coming as a past event that took place in conjunction with the Roman destruction of the Jewish temple in AD 70.
The following is from Russell's "The Parousia:" The passage which we are now considering throws light also upon our Lord's prediction in Luke xxi. 24: 'And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled.' Our Lord, it is to be observed, is here speaking of the siege and capture of Jerusalem, the very theme of the apocalyptic vision. ... But if so, what are we to understand by 'the times of the Gentiles' in our Saviour's prediction? It has been generally supposed that this expression refers to some mystic period of unknown duration, extending, it may be, over centuries and aeons, and still rolling on its uncompleted course. But if this non-natural interpretation of words is to be applied to Scripture, it is difficult to see what use there is in specifying any periods of time at all. Surely, it is much more respectful to the Word of God to understand its language as having some definite meaning. What, then, if 'forty and two months' should really mean forty-two months, and nothing more? The times of the Gentiles can only mean the time during which Jerusalem is in their occupation. That time is distinctly specified in the Apocalypse as forty-two months. Now this is a period repeatedly spoken of in this book under different designations. It is the 'thousand two hundred and sixty days' of the next verse, and the 'time, times and half a time' of chap. xii. 14, that is to say, three years and a half. Now it is evident that such a space of time in the history of nations would be an insignificant point; but for a tumultuous and lawless rabble to domineer over a great city for such a period would be something portentous and terrible. The occupation of such a city by an armed mob is not likely to continue over ages and centuries: it is an abnormal state of things which must speedily terminate. Now this is exactly what happened in the last days of Jerusalem. During the three years and an half which represent with sufficient accuracy the duration of the Jewish war, Jerusalem was actually in the hands and under the feet of a horde of ruffians, whom their own countryman describes as 'slaves, and the very dregs of society, the spurious and polluted spawn of the nation.' The last fatal struggle may be said to have begun when Vespasian was sent by Nero, at the head of sixty thousand men, to put down the rebellion. This was early in the year A.D. 67, and in August A.D.70 the city and the temple were a heap of smoking ashes.
1914 AD - 1918 AD
Rutherford said the "three and a half times" is the 1,260 day period that began in 1914, and ended in mid-1918, when the Watch Tower Society's preaching work was suspended. This was immediately followed by the 1,290 days, which ran to 1922. The 1,335 day period (1922-1926) then ensued--the period of the celebrated conventions.
Coffman identified the "time, times and a half" and the 1,260 days of Revelation 12 with "the whole Christian dispensation" in his commentary on Daniel.
2008 AD - 2012 AD
Weinland said the 1,260 days began in 2008, when he declared himself to be one of the two witnesses, and his wife Laura the other one.
Copyright © 2010 by Douglas
E. Cox
All Rights Reserved.